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©The
Sun (Used by permission)
by R. Surenthira Kumar and Maria J. Dass
SHAH ALAM (Oct 23, 2007): A police forensics crime scene investigation (CSI)
officer testified in the Altantuya Shaariiibuu murder trial today that 13 items
were retrieved from a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Supt Soo Mee Tong, 51, from the Forensics Division in the Senior Police
Officers’ College in Cheras listed the items to the court.
They included a lump of soil found on the blue mudflap of the left front tyre, a
lump of soil found on the inside of the rim of the front right tyre, a steering
wheel cover, a Smart Tag, a Touch ‘n Go card, a blood-stained copy of Utusan
Malaysia dated Sept 14, 2006, a pair of blood-stained rubber slippers, a 9mm
SME 06 bullet shell, sweat swab from the door handle, a strand of hair and a few
other copies of newspapers.
Soo said the items were recovered from the greyish blue 1,300cc Suzuki
four-wheel-drive with registration number CAC 1883 after a check by the CSI team
on Nov 9.
Replying to questions from Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Hanim Rashid during
the prosecution’s examination-in-chief on the 50th day of the trial today, he
said the inspection on the vehicle was conducted by the CSI team following a
request from the investigating officer ASP Tonny Lunggan at about 11pm on Nov,
8, 2006.
Asked by Hanim the reason the CSI team did not conduct the check on the vehicle
on the same day, Soo said to make their investigations more effective, the check
was carried out during daytime, the following day.
Soo said after a briefing by Tonny at the Kuala Lumpur police contingent
headquarters (IPK KL), the CSI team was shown the vehicle which was parked in
IPK KL’s parade ground.
Investigations by the CSI team on the vehicle was conducted in three stages and
photographs of the vehicle and all the items recovered were taken, said Soo.
He said the Smart Tag was found on the dashboard with the Touch ‘n Go card while
the hair was found on the front passenger seat. In the rear, he said, there was
only one seat, behind the passenger.
The slippers were found on the mat, on the rear seat and a white box with the
wordings "Planet T 792" was found on the missing seat area, said Soo, adding
that three shirts and fishing equipment were found placed on the box while
inside there was more fishing equipment. The bullet shell was found in the space
between the driver’s seat and the door.
After the court returned from lunch, Soo continued his testimony by identifying
eight of the 13 items including the Sept 14, 2006 edition of Utusan Malaysia
which had stains on the top right hand corner of the paper.
"This stain was believed to be blood," said Soo who had lead the forensic team
which retrieved the paper from Sirul’s Suzuki Jeep, belonging to Sirul. This
stain which was on pages one and three of the paper was confirmed to be blood
when a screening test were conducted on it using the Castle-Mayer solution at
the police forensic lab in Cheras, he added.
"However it is not known if the blood is human or that of an animal," said Soo.
He said the copy of the newspaper was taken by the forensic team to conduct DNA
tests on the blood stain.
Soo said the team had collected other newspapers from the vehicle to see if any
fingerprints could be lifted off these using the Ninhydrin solution in the
forensic lab.
He explained that the soil samples collected from the left mudguard of the front
tyre of the vehicle, and the inner rim of the right front tyre of the 4WD was to
make comparisons with soil samples obtained from the crime scene.
Soo said similarly the 9mm bullet casings that were collected from the jeep,
were taken to match it to any bullet casings (if found) at the crime scene,
while the steering cover from the vehicle was taken to do a DNA comparison to
the people who had driven the car.
Meanwhile, the court was told that prosecution witness Shaari Desa, 40 is
expected to testify onThursday (Oct 25).
Shaari who is firearms and tool marks unit head at the Chemistry Department
Forensic division was thought to have been down with dengue, however DPP Hanim
Rashid informed the court that he was no down with dengue but was affected by an
infection.
Earlier this morning, another witness, Mohd Roslan Abdul Karim, 32, a computer
programmer with Rangkaian Segar Sdn Bhd testified.
Lead DPP Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah asked Mohd Roslan to explain about the
printouts of the "Touch ‘n Go" card transactions, belonging to L/Cpl Rohaniza
Roslan.
Mohd Roslan said he designed the system which was used to record the
transactions.
He said despite the omittance of details of the names of the toll plazas
utilised, the code numbers used was adequate to indicate the specific toll plaza
entered or exited.
However he was at a loss, when asked by defence lawyers, Hazman Ahmad and
Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, representing C/Insp Azilah Hadri and Cpl Sirul Azhar
Umar respectively, on why the details appeared in one of the documents and was
missing in another.
WHAT HAPPENED TODAY - DAY 50
* Mohd Roslan Abdul Karim, 32, a computer programmer with Rangkaian Segar Sdn
Bhd testified.
* Supt Soo Mee Tong, from the police forensics division took the witness stand.
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