No one is above the law.

Today, former Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was found guilty for corruption, and the courts have decided that he be sentenced to 12 months jail and fined RM2mil for the offence.

According to a report by The Star, Justice Mohamed Zaini Mazlan said that the decision was made taking into consideration other similar corruption cases in the past.

"The accused is sentenced to 12 months and a fine of RM2mil. Any default, he would have to serve another six months. The sentence is to run from the date of judgment," he said in the report.

Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, the lawyer representing Tengku Adnan, however, requested for a stay of execution for both sentences and this was allowed by the judge.

(A stay of execution basically means that the sentence has been temporarily suspended usually because the party involved wants to appeal on the sentence made.)

Lower the fine, please

During mitigation, Tan requested that his client be fined less than RM2,000 in order for him to retain his position as MP for Putrajaya, but this was objected by Deputy Public Prosecutor Julia Ibrahim.
"In the accused's own words, RM2mil is just pocket money to him. The sentence must be deterrent so that other people would not repeat it.

"The court should not be giving a fine of less than RM2,000 in a case that involves RM2mil, which is just pocket money to the accused," she said.

In the end, the court decided on a year's jail and a RM2mil fine for the offence.

We think it's befitting. What about you?