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 ©Bernama
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama)-- The High Court today ordered the
officer-in-charge of court records at the Jalan Duta Court Complex here to lodge
a police report over some missing notes of evidence involving three material
witnesses and an exhibit of Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez.
Justice Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali, who presided over the appeal hearing, made the
order after being informed by a records officer that the notes and exhibit were
missing.
He said the court viewed the matter seriously, resulting in its predicament in
continuing with the appeal proceedings today.
Mohamed Apandi said initial checks by the records officer had revealed that the
notes and the exhibit were most probably missing before files were moved from
the old court complex in Jalan Raja to the current location, in the middle of
last year.
Today was fixed for direction of the appeal after the court was informed on
April 1, that over 1,700 documents pertaining to the case were not compiled in
the record of appeal.
On Oct 16, 2003, Fernandez was sentenced to a year's jail in prison by a
magistrate's court when she was found guilty of publishing false news on the
condition of migrant workers in detention camps.
Magistrate Juliana Mohamed ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond
reasonable doubt the three elements of the charge - that Fernandez had published
a memorandum containing the false news, the falsity of the news and her
malicious intent.
She was charged with publishing with malicious intent, a memorandum entitled "Abuse,
Torture and Dehumanised Treatment of Immigrant Workers at Detention Camps"
which contained "false news", at the Tenaganita Sdn Bhd office at No: 28c,
Lorong Bunus Enam, Off Jalan Masjid India, on Aug 25, 1995.
Mohamed Apandi told Fernandez's counsel, M. Puravalen that he had fixed June 11
for both prosecution and defence to make their submissions over the missing
notes of proceedings which resulted in an uncomplete record of appeal.
Deputy public prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman later told reporters that the
prosecution's three witnesses were SP13, SP14 and SP15.
He said SP13 was Semenyih district engineer Tan On Chin who gave evidence on the
building design of the Semenyih Immigration Detention Centre.
SP14 was Dr N. Raman, a former director of Hospital Bahagia in Tanjung Rambutan
who gave evidence that not many inmates were treated with psychiatric problems
from the centre, and SP15 was former male nurse N. Vijayan of the hospital.
The missing exhibit was a paper-cutting which appeared in a newspaper.
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YA Dato' Ian Chin's Notes of Proceedings
