Malaysian lecturer faces jail in Australia, says report
A Malaysian lecturer faces jail in Australia and deportation for allegedly forging Malaysian consulate documents so that his family could extend their stay in the country, The Sun reported today.
Last Wednesday, Mohamed Mokhtar Mohamad Ghani was served with a summons for forging documents for immigration purposes under the Victorian Crimes Act 1958. He is scheduled to appear before a magistrate on February 27 next year.
The Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) lecturer is accused of using the letterhead of the consulate without permission and claiming to be the "assistant officer to Consul General of Melbourne".
In the 2011 letter, his wife, a lecturer who is completing her doctoral studies at Monash University in Melbourne on government scholarship, had applied for an extension of her leave from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).
The family had left for Australia so that she could pursue her studies there, and their four children are currently enrolled in a school in Melbourne.
Mokhtar was running a car hire company while his wife, Raja Mazhatul Yasmin Suraya, opened a restaurant in Melbourne's Central Business District called "Little Ipoh" in 2013.
The matter only came to the authorities’ attention last year when Unimas officials contacted the Consulate General's Office in Melbourne to verify the contents of the allegedly forged letter.
The Sun confirmed that the Melbourne police ahad documents showing Mokhtar had copied several classified documents on a USB memory stick, including letterheads and personal information on consulate staff.
The police have also recorded statements from the Consul General and other consulate officials.
Mokhtar's case comes on the heels of Malaysian Second Warrant Officer Muhammad Rizalman Ismail, who faces burglary and assault charges in Wellington. – October 28, 2014.
