The Malaysian Bar - Amend law on court exhibits

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Amend law on court exhibits

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 12:58pm

©The Star (Used by permission)
by PRISCILLA DIELENBERG

GEORGE TOWN: The law should be amended to put an end to the tedious process of chemists having to identify exhibits in court, a High Court judge said.

Justice Zamani Abdul Rahim made this remark when Sukhairi Samsudin from the Chemist Department finished testifying and was about to proceed with identifying the markings on 44 exhibits which he had received from the police for analysis.

“This is a very tedious job. The law should be amended,” said Justice Zamani during a trial of four Indonesians charged with trafficking in more than 28kg of drugs.

“The chemist is here and he has tendered his report. We should be able to proceed with cross-examination.

“They (the lawmakers) don’t understand. When they sit here, they will understand – it takes one or two days just to tender the exhibits.”

In the dock were Dwi Supriyatno Meo, 45, Fredy Hermawan, 42, Andy Paksi, 40, and Indra Mulyadi, 42, charged with two counts of trafficking in 10,743.2gm of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and 17,363.5gm of ketamine at a bungalow in Jalan Batu Ferringhi at 9.30pm on Oct 27, 2009.

They face the mandatory death sentence if convicted.

Sukhairi testified yesterday that he received the exhibits on Oct 30, 2009.

They included 17 plastic drums, 13 cardboard boxes, nine plastic containers, four boxes and a sack.

He said 16 of the drums contained 35 litres of a yellow liquid which he found to be MDP2P (3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl-2-propanone), and one drum contained 10 litres of the same substance.

He also described in detail the different contents of the various boxes and containers and his analysis of them.

Some had powder or granules of various colours and he found some of these to be MDMA and ketamine.

One box contained 10,200 pink tablets of trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP), benzylpiperazine (BZP) and caffeine and another had 32,000 yellow tablets of TFMPP and BZP.

While he was giving evidence, several policemen spent over an hour lugging heavy items meant as exhibits into the courtroom. These included the blue drums, boxes, plastic containers, crates, an oven, a mixer and a grinding machine.

Dwi Supriyatno is represented by counsel Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Fredy Hermawan by Hussaini Abdul Rashid, while the other two are represented by Datuk Naran Singh.

The hearing continues today.

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