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theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 11 2008
news without borders
Court dismisses bid to
amend RPK’s charge
by Tan Yi Liang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: The sessions court here yes-
terday rejected an application by the prosecution
to amend the sedition charge against Malaysia-
Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK).
The prosecution had applied to include the
website address and title of the allegedly sedi-
tious article, Let’s send the Altantuya murderers
to hell, which was not present in the original
article appended with the sedition charge.
Judge Rozina Ayob agreed with the defence
that an amendment to the charge would be
contrary to section 158 of the Criminal Procedure
Code, and that it was prejudicial to the accused
to amend it at such a late stage.
“The charge is a substitution. We have gone
through it, and there are sections where even
words are changed,” defence counsel Gobind
Singh Deo said.
“The question that comes to mind is this: is
this the original, or is this another document that
has been typed up by the police officer?” asked
Gobind, who submitted that the amendment was
a sign that the prosecution “has no case”.
“It is our submission that the prosecution realis-
es that they have no chance. They should withdraw
the charge and admit that it is baseless.”
Raja Petra is charged with committing sedition
through the article posted on www. malaysia-today.
net from his house on Jalan BRP 5/5, Bukit Rahman
Putra in Sungai Buloh on April 25 this year.
The charge carries a penalty of up to RM5,000
fine or three years’ jail or both upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusoff
refuted the severity of the amendments, claiming
Habeas corpus application withdrawn
KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court yesterday al-
lowed an application by blogger Raja Petra Raja
Kamaruddin, freed from detention under the
Internal Security Act last Friday, to withdraw his
habeas corpus application of Sept 16 for release
from ISA custody.
Justice Suraya Othman granted the application
after Raja Petra’s counsel Malek Imtiaz Sarwar
made an oral application to the court yesterday.
“My client instructed me to withdraw it (the
application) in view of the Shah Alam High Court
decision to free him from the two-year ISA deten-
Altantuya murder trial
Duo to make defence on Jan 15
SHAH ALAM: Two police commandos, Chief
Insp Azilah Hadri and Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar,
will have to wait until Jan 15 next year to
make their defence in the High Court here
on a charge of murdering Mongolian national
Altantuya Shaariibuu.
This is because their respective counsel,
Datuk Hazman Ahmad and Kamarul Hisham
Kamaruddin, were unable to locate and inter-
view witnesses whom they planned to call.
Justice Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin al-
lowed their applications for two months’
grace to prepare their cases.
“I want this case to be tried continuously
from Jan 15 until the end,” he said.
Azilah, 32, and Sirul Azhar, 36, both from
the Special Action Squad, were to make their
defence today on a charge of murdering Altan-
tuya, 28, in Mukim Bukit Raja between 10pm on
Oct 19, 2006, and 1am the following day.
In his application yesterday, Hazman said
he could not decide who to call to testify be-
cause he could not interview the witnesses
as some of them were not in Kuala Lumpur.
He said he was also pressed for time to
settle all his other pending trials from 2003 to
2006, which had been put on hold to give way
to Altantuya’s trial, as the presiding judges
were getting impatient and had disallowed
postponements.
“The prosecution has taken a year and
a half to prosecute this case. We must also
be given space and time to prepare the
the prosecution had just added two elements
which had been objected to by the defence dur-
ing the last trial sessions in October.
“It is an editorial, but it forms part of the ingre-
dients of the charge, so that the accused under-
stands the charge against him. We are adding two
ingredients to make it clearer,” Ishak said.
The court then moved on to hear testimony
from two witnesses – senior digital forensic
analyst S. Sivanathan and ASP Wa’ie Isqual Kria
Abdullah.
Sivanathan, who was questioned on a forensic
investigation report of the computers seized from
Raja Petra by the police, told the court there were
several elements found in the forensic log which
indicated that someone had used a Dell desktop
and an Asus laptop to access the Malaysia-Today
website with “administrator privileges”.
Asked to clarify what “administrator privi-
leges” were, Sivanathan said that such privileges
allow a user to maintain the website.
He said however that while some people may
log in with administrator rights, it was possible
to create usernames and passwords with lesser
privileges.
He said while there was evidence in the log
indicating that files had been uploaded to Malay-
sia-Today from the computers, he was unable to
determine the type of file uploaded to the news
portal.
Meanwhile, Wa’ie, who was called to testify on
the forensic log made by him for the investigating
officer, DSP Mahfuz Abdul Majid, said that while
he prepared the logs from his forensic analysis
of both the laptop and the desktop, he did not
look beyond Mahfuz’s request to find evidence
pertaining to the investigation on Raja Petra.
tion order,” Malek Imtiaz told the court.
Suraya said that since the matter had become
academic, the court was allowing the application
and that it was up to Raja Petra, if he wished, to
seek civil action over his detention.
Earlier, senior federal counsel Najib Zakaria said
the Home Ministry and the Kamunting Detention
Centre had no objection to the application.
Raja Petra filed the application on Sept 16
on the grounds that his detention was unlawful
and that the home minister had contravened the
Federal Constitution with his action. – Bernama
defence,” he said. Kamarul Hisham also
requested the court for more time to get
hold of blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin
and private investigator P. Balasubramaniam
whom he intended to call as witnesses.
“I have written a letter to his solicitor on
Oct 21, but there was no response from Raja
Petra’s lawyers. We have also sent messages
to the lawyers and the law firm, we have yet
to receive a reply,” he said.
Raja Petra, who was recently released
from Internal Security Act (ISA) detention,
had made a statutory declaration linking a
top politician and his wife to the murder.
Balasubramaniam had also made a similar
statutory declaration but retracted it three
days later in another sworn statement.
Kamarul Hisham said he was informed
by the prosecution that investigating officer
Tony Lunggan could not locate Balasubra-
maniam’s whereabouts and this matter was
confirmed by deputy public prosecutor Tun
Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah.
Tun Majid said he had no objections to the
postponement, but notified the court that he
would raise an objection under section 136
of the Evidence Act pursuant to the defence’s
intention to recall some of the prosecution
witnesses, including Balasubramaniam.
Outside the court, Hazman told the media
that he planned to call nine witnesses, in-
cluding an expert in telecommunication and
Azilah’s girlfriend. – Bernama