Two men are to spend over a year in prison after having been convicted by the magistrate’s court in Kuching today for retaining a vehicle stolen from a Sarawak assistant minister.  

Junaidi Razali, 47, and Robert Denik Jishian, 29, were sentenced to 13 months’ jail after they pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a stolen item.

Magistrate Shafiza Abdul Razak Tready handed down the sentence after convicting them for possessing a Toyota Fortuner four-wheel-drive vehicle that was forcefully taken from state Culture and Heritage Assistant Minister Liwan Lagang.

The unemployed men were apprehended at the Malaysia-Indonesia border checkpoint at Serikin on Dec 21.

Police investigation revealed that the vehicle was the one that Liwan had reported was robbed from him on Dec 16.

Liwan suffered injuries on several parts of his body following a struggle with two masked men, one of whom was armed with a knife, when they robbed him of the vehicle as he was about to enter it after buying a newspaper in Kota Sentosa.

- Bernama