Man sentenced to 6 months jail for camera spying on Nasha Aziz

Supervisor cum maintenance manager Ahmad Bakhtiar Abdul Kayoom was sent to Kajang Prison on Monday to serve six months jail after he failed in his final appeal to quash his conviction for trespassing and installing a closed-circuit television in model Nasha Aziz's rented apartment six years ago.Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi who led a three-men Court of Appeal quorum unanimously upheld the conviction and jail term meted out on Ahmad Bakhtiar by the Magistrate's Court in 2004.

He ordered Ahmad Bakhtiar to serve the sentence from today. Ahmad Bakhtiar was released on bail of RM10,000 in one surety pending disposal of his appeal at the higher courts and given a stay of execution on the magistrate's court decision.

Zaki said that there was no miscarriage of justice although Magistrate Ida Hanani Abdul Karim resumed hearing the trial after she was transferred to the Attorney-General's (AG) chambers as Federal Counsel in the drafting section.

"Ahmad Bakhtiar had destroyed people's privacy, she (Nasha) is a well-known actress, put yourself in her shoes, while having a bath, would you like it," Zaki said.

The other two judges who presided over the appeal with Zaki were Court of Appeal judges Datuk James Foong Cheng Yuen and Datuk K.N.Segara.

Ida Hanani found Ahmad Bakhtiar, 31, guilty of two charges of trespassing into the apartment of Nasha, whose real name is Noraisha A.Aziz, in Shahzan Court in Jalan Nipah off Jalan Ampang and intruding upon her privacy by installing a closed-circuit camera between the month of April and July in 2002.

Ahmad Bakhtiar was sentenced to six months jail for each offence. However magistrate Ida Hanani had ordered him to serve the jail term concurrently.

His's bid to quash the conviction and sentence at the High Court was also unsuccessful.

Earlier, his counsel Jagjit Singh raised a point of law questioning the validity of the magistrate resuming to hear the trial after being transferred to the AG chambers.

Alternatively, Jagjit urged the court to remit the case back to the Magistrate's court for a retrial if the Appellate Court did not allow his client's appeal to set aside the conviction and sentence.

DPP Noorin Badaruddin said the fact that the magistrate resumed hearing the trial after being transferred to AG chambers did not prejudice Ahmad Bakhtiar because she was not transferred there as a deputy public prosecutor and did not have access to the investigation papers of the case.

She said Ida Hanani was transferred as a Federal Counsel in the drafting section and that the chief registrar had given permission for Ida Hanani to resume the trial of the case.

Noorin said the wiring of the camera was found going through outside of Nasha's apartment leading to another apartment in the block which was turned into a maintenance office by Ahmad Bakhtiar. (The whole block of the apartment building belonged to Ahmad Bakhtiar's father).

-- BERNAMA