|
©Bernama
(Used by permission)
SHAH ALAM, July 24 (Bernama) -- Lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin told the High
Court here Thursday that his client, Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar, never made any
disclosures when he was interrogated on Nov 6, 2006.
In his four-hour submission before Judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yassin against the
admissibility of Sirul's alleged disclosure which led to the discovery of
Altantuya Shaariibuu's jewellery, the counsel said there was no question that
preceded the disclosure and no witnesses during the trial had explained the
matter.
"It is crucial to note that the so called disclosure to C/Insp Kamaroszaman
Othman -- Sirul's interrogating officer during the interrogation on the Nov 6,
2006 which has been excluded by this court was regard to supposedly the location
of the crime scene -- had nothing to do with the location of the jewellery.
"Now, why would Sirul for no reason whatsoever, having not said anything about
the location of the jewellery in the full scale interrogation by an official
team of interrogators earlier on Nov 6, 2006, now make any revelation at all?"
he said.
He said there was no interview and there was no information, and the police had
recorded Sirul's statement long before the alleged interview ever took place.
Sirul, 36, and C/Insp Azilah Hadri, 31, were charged with murdering Altantuya at
Mukim Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20, 2006 while
political analyst Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, 47, with abetting the two
Special Action Unit operatives in the murder.
Kamarul also said Sirul had not been properly cautioned and ASP Zulkarnain
Samsuddin never gave evidence what the words of caution were.
"ASP Zulkarnain became entangled in a lie. He had spun to explain away the
obvious fact that he had recorded the so called disclosure in his diary 35
minutes before the disclosure was allegedly made," he said.
On Sirul's house keys, the lawyer said: "Did the police avail themselves of
these keys and make copies thereof? And proceeded to make copies of them and
accessed the house of second accused? We will never know."
He said ACP Mastor Mohd Ariff had explained that the keys produced in court were
new while the ones he gave to Sgt Rosli Ibrahim were old.
"The prosecution never challenged this testimony. It is to be remembered that
Rosli said the same thing (the keys he received were old) and in his statements,
Sirul also said the keys were not his house keys," Kamarul said.
Kamarul also questioned the credibility of statements by C/Insp Koh Fei Cheow
and ASP Zulkarnain and the validity of methods they had used to extract the
purported disclosure from Sirul.
"The disclosure, according to records in Zulkarnain's investigation diary,
showed the time of the disclosure as 1.45 but according to his testimony in
court, the interview only started at 2pm and the disclosure was made at 2.20pm.
"This is an explanation of a liar, to put it bluntly," he said.
Kamarul said Zulkarnain later claimed that he entered 1.45pm into his diary
because that was the time he received the instruction from DSP Gan Tack Guan but
he had earlier testified that he received the instruction at 12.30pm.
He also said Zulkarnain had failed to inform the court of amendments to the
police report he made on the disclosure which was only discovered when the
defence team realised they had the original copy and the prosecution had the
amended copy.
The hearing continues Friday.
 |
News 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Circular No 297/2008
