Posts Tagged ‘RPK’s trial’
The Grave of Justice
Posted on: February 17, 2009
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As planned earlier, today went to the Putrajaya Federal Court to hear RPK’s case where the Home Minister SHIT HAM appeal against the Shah Alam High court’s decision to set RPK free.
At 9am, the court room was fulled with people, mainly RPK’s supporters. Around 9.20am Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng arrived. I managed to shake his hand outside the room when he arrived, he saw my shirt I AM WITH RPK straight away he shake my hand! Inside the court room, the benches were limited, i mean very limited. Earlier the police said seats were limited so if those who didn’t have a seat then couldn’t sit in la, but when CM Lim guan eng arrives, along with YB Ronnie Liu, those police just went around scrambling for bench. Even the benches at the dock was taken out for the people, still LGE wouldn’t sit as he’s here for a while before he heads back to Parliament. (Those police’s attitude is there for all to see, when it was normal people, they just don’t care, but when it was YB ah, was scrambling around also have to find a seat for them even though the YBs didn’t asked for it) Almost 100 people squeeze inside the court room, maybe 10 were journalist, Malaysian Insider journalist sits beside me. Oh even Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi shows up to support RPK. Raja Petra didn’t come today as his presence was not required, but no matter what the supporters remained.
Hearing begins at 9.45am with Manoharan’s case. There’s slight confusion as to his appeal whether it was the second or third appeal. The first habeas corpus was filed at 19/12/07, and the second appeal was filed after Manoharan was elected as the ADUN for Kota Alam Shah. The three Judges question whether the second appeal and the third appeal was filed on the same grounds, that Manoharan as the Home Minister sees him as a threat to national security, but the people elects him as their ADUN. so he cannot be seen as a threat to national security. At 11 am, the three Judges UNANIMOUSLY DISMISSED Manoharan’s case because this third appeal is based on the second appeal’s ground, therefore his case was DISMISSED. I ddn’t know how/when/why the second appeal was dismissed, to me the reason given was valid. The people elects Manoharan as their assemblyman, so how can he be viewed as a threat when the people have put trust on him?
Before RPK’s case begin, Judge Augustine Paul recuse himself from the hearing for the application to recuse him from the case. For a moment, i thought there’s hope, but it went all the way down from here. Justice Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman ordered the hearing for the application to recuse Augustine Paul, and this was objected by RPK’s counsel Malik Imtiaz . He argued that a court with only two Judges cannot proceed with the hearing. At this point, many wonders what will happen if one judge said yes and the other said no. How can a two judge bench make decision??? However, Nik Hashim argued that since the hearing has started the court can continued with the remaining judges. Again, arguments here. Judge Augustine Paul recuse himself before the hearing start not after, i heard it myself clearly. Arguments after arguments and Malik called it unconstitutional and its decision can be reviewed. In the end, Nik Hashim read the UNANIMOUS decision by the remaining two judges that the court continues for the hearing.
The proceeding continues with Malik gives details as to why Judge Augustine Paul can be recuse from hearing the case. From the days when Anwar Ibrahim was brought down, RPK was critical of Augustine and once called him slimeballs and accused him lacking of integrity. This was reasons given by Malik as he said from the third party point of view, Augustine might be bias against RPK. Further more, in 2001 Augustine had DISMISSED RPK’s habeas corpus and have the view that RPK is a threat to national security, this also might be bias against RPK. It was a long hearing, and Malik was giving one after another including the Judges Code of Ethic and conclude that there was real danger of bias. At this point, the Judge Nik Hashim seems restless and uneasy, trying to break down Malik’s every attempt. I don’t know how best to describe it, from my point of view, the Judge was bias as he seems to have the answer before it started which was why he’s trying to break down Malik. The court adjourned to 1.30pm for the decision on the application to recuse Augustine Paul.
Quickly ran down to the cafeteria, time was limited and many people will rush there for lunch. The price of the food was quite cheap, but too many people!!! Many of RPK’s supporters were still around, some just arrived or were late in the morning and waiting at the cafeteria.
1.30 pm, Judge Nik Hashim read the decision, again, UNANIMOUS decision to DISMISS the application to recuse Judge Augustine Paul. Felt like wants throw my shoe at him now, have to cool myself down, it was expected anyway. Upon this, Malik Imtiaz moved three motions. The first is to have 5 or 7 Judges bench. Judge Augustine Paul who came in earlier questioned whether they have the power to decide for more Judges. The motion was DISMISSED in an UNANIMOUS decision.
Then, second counsel Azhar continues with the 2nd and 3rd motion. The second is to strike out the appeal based on the fact that RPK was released from 07 Nov 08 until today, and there was no threat by him to the national security whatsoever. The Home Minister signed for RPK’s detention to run for 2 years, this means he is viewed as a threat for two years, yet until now, RPK has prove the other way round. Judge Augustine Paul said “You must first understand the ISA” and Judge Nik Hashim continues “He was detained for something he has done”. (felt like want to throw shoe again) Azhar replied “NO!!! ISA was a preventive law, he was detained because he was viewed by the Home Minister as a threat to national security not because of something he has done”, to this, all the Judges were speechless. Seems like they don’t know ISA very well. But again, the Judges gave a UNANIMOUS decision to DISMISS the motion. No reason given, nothing. All in the courtroom just couldn’t understand why the motion was thrown out.
The third motion was about the article written by RPK Lets send Altantuya murderers to hell, of which this form the basic of sedition trial against RPK and also one of the reasons for his detention under the ISA. How can someone be charged twice for the same thing??? Last week at the PJ court, Supt Gan testified that he didn’t made a full investigation on Altantuya’s murder case. This again open to arguments whether the article written was true or false. But again, the Judges came to a UNANIMOUS decision to DISMISS the motion. Again no reason was given, we knew nothing as to why and how the Judge came to that decision.
The Judge set next Monday 23/2/09 9.30 am to continue hearing and made decision.
By this time, many were disappointed with the proceeding. From morning till now, all we heard is UNANIMOUS DECISION TO DISMISS. This is not the palace of justice, but more like The Grave of Justice. I have today seen how justice was killed again and again and again, so many times that it horrifies me. The question now is, how many lives do the justice have? Could Monday be The Day The Justice Die? I hope i won’t have to use this as the title for next Monday. Until then, keep praying for divine intervention. This might be the only hope we have now.
(As said in my earlier post, no pictures until i get a new camera. Btw, i should be kaki ayam now)
RPK’s trial on his freedom
Posted on: February 11, 2009
Dear all, today i was with RPK and many others who stood with him at the Putrajaya Federal Court. One of the three Judges was Augustine Paul. I guess many already know who this fella is from the days when Anwar Ibrahim was brought down. RPK’s counsel Malik Imtiaz applied for time for a formal application to recuse Augustine Paul from the hearing. Justice Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman, set next tuesday 17/2/09 as the hearing date, whether the application to recuse Augustine Paul or not as well as the appeal by SHIT HAMID on RPK’s released from ISA. Please folk to come and support RPK next tuesday, it’s the date to decide whether he will remain free or be dump back into Kamunting, you have time to get you leave now.
DATE : 17/2/09 23/2/09
DAY : TUESDAY MONDAY
TIME : 9.00 am 9.30am
VENUE : ISTANA KEHAKIMAN PUTRAJAYA (FEDERAL COURT) AT PRESINCT 3.
Also, this is the three Judges that rejected the Hindraf 5’s appeal, so please please come next tuesday, come and fill the whole Court not just the court room.
(picture thanks to The Whisperer š )
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Hafiz Yatim | December 18, 2008 (Malaysiakini)
While blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin continues to claim trial to the amended sedition charge, his counsel Gobind Singh Deo rapped the police officer and complainant in the case for giving the trial a miss despite being scheduled to be cross-examined by the defence.
The drama unraveled at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court today where the bloggerās trial was scheduled to resume but had to be postponed due to the absence of assistant director of the Interpol National Centre Bureau at Bukit Aman, Gan Tack Guan, who is the fifth prosecution witness in the case.
Gan filed the first information report on Raja Petra following the discovery he made on the bloggerās Malaysia Today website over the article āLetās send the Altantuya murderers to hellā. He was also the chief investigation officer in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial.
DPP Roslan Mat Nor had earlier informed Sessions Judge Rozina Ayob that Gan was in Taiwan.
āI do not know the reason why he is in Taiwan or when he had left there. But I am told by the investigation officer in this case that he will only be back on Dec 21,ā said the DPP.
āWe had already informed him of the date of the trial but did not managed to serve a subpoena,ā he said.
āMaking a mockeryā
Gobind then responded that it was not the first time Gan had done this. The last time when the defence was ready to question him, he had suddenly taken medical leave.
āToday, we are told he is in Taiwan but he had already been informed of this trial date despite the subpoena had yet to be served on him.
āHe is making a mockery of the court and this proceeding. This is an unbecoming attitude of a police officer who should have upheld the law and know the court rules of the country. He should set an example for others,ā said the lawyer.
Gobind said normally people blame the court or lawyers for the delay but in this case, it seems the police are haggering the trial.
āWhat are they waiting for. Are they waiting until after March to have this case heard,ā he said.
At this juncture, Roslan objected the notion as it had nothing to do with the case.
āWe are prepared to go on with the case, it is the defence who felt they wanted to cross-examine him first before going on with the sixth and seventh witness who had already testified,ā he said.
Gobind then quipped, āSiapa makan cili terasa pedasā.
Roslan also pointed out that following the Sessions Courtās decision to allow the prosecution at the previous session to re-examine other folders on the laptop and central processing unit of Raja Petraās computers, the police found further evidence and would introduce them through the seventh witness, police computer forensic office, Waāie Iskal Kria Abdullah.
Following this, Rozina then asked Roslan how many more prosecution witnesses will they be producing. To this, Roslan replied three more after the seventh witness, and this included the investigating officer.
The judge then ordered the trial to resume for three days beginning Febraury 10, to facilitate Gan to be cross-examined.
Raja Petra, 58, had earlier claimed trial after the Shah Alam High Court had on Monday allowed the prosecutionās application for a revision to amend the sedition charge after Rozina had rejected the application on Nov 10.
The amendment included the addition of the title of the article and the website address of the alleged seditious article
The blogger has originally been charged with publishing an allegedly seditious article in Malaysia Today, at his home at No 5, Jalan BRP 5/5 Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh on April 25 this year.
The charge under Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act 1948 carries a maximum fine of RM5,000 or three yearsā jail or both upon conviction.
Day 3 of RPK’s trial 08/10/08
Posted on: October 9, 2008
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Starts my journey early before 7am from Kajang. Get lost on the way but still arrived quite early around 7.45 am, parked my car in front of A&W. Then walked to the PJ magistrate court which is not far away. Along the way, I think my uniform drawn a lot of attentions. Well with the super huge message āI AM WITH RPKā I guess people can spot me from miles away J
No people/gangs yet in front of the court. I admitted that itās really nervous waiting in front of the court, I mean this is my first time, ok what do you expect. While Iām waiting with San Jiun, came Mr Chua & wife, who like us, a newbie’s.
Mr Chua: So what do we do, we just wait here (by the roadside) until he comes?
Me: I guess so, think the peoples will come later.
Mr Chua : Wah where you get the shirt ah?
Me : Haha got it earlier from Puchong distributor, but they will sell here as well, so you can get it later.
Mr Chua : Ah good good. Ei you stand in front a bit la, let people see your message mah.
Then come Mr Law, with a Botswanian girl, who studied in Monash Uni. She came alone by LRT to Taman Jaya when Mr Law spotted her and lead her to the court. Well, Malaysians where art thou?
The crowd grews bigger by the minutes and we all went in where Marina had arrived.
I didn’t take a lot of picture, instead i used the time to chat with Marina. She told me that the cards we sent to RPK, if it was written with NO TO ISA, the officers wonāt passed it to him. So I guess now we all have to avoid it.
And, she also mention about the habeas corpus for RPK against his ISA arrest, is scheduled for hearing on the 22/10/08 at Shah Alam court.
Around 8.20 am, the van that carried RPK came. It was tinted almost 100% black, couldnāt even get a glimpse inside, anyway we all just wave to our hero. He must have been smiling back.
We all then proceed to the court room. For my first time in the magistrate court, I have to say itās not what Iāve expected, the room was very small with just 8 benches which can accommodate 5 person/bench.
RPK had already been brought to the dock, with Marina staying closely. The supporters were giving him wishes, greetings as well as words of encouragement. His mood is quite good, jovial, but he looks a little weak. Heard him saying his stomach is still āterribleā. Anyway, itās better for him to be here rather than in Kamunting cell, at least he gets some fresh air and get to hold his families and friends.
By 8.40am, the room was full with 50 peoples squeezing the benches and many others standing at the back. The bench for journalist was full as well. I was sitting at the second row, just behind Marina so everytime RPK catch a glimpse of his wife were seen by me (feng shui sit haha).
The trial starts a bit late, around 9.15am. In between the time, RPK was discussing with his lawyers. The only foreign reporter present also get a 10 minutes interview with him.
YB Gobind Singh come as the defence team for RPK. We were told that Judge Rozina Ayob was not feeling well so the trial will ends early at 11am. Another MP come, itās YB Ronnie Liu.
The trial starts with the prosecution team calling witness, policeman Victor San Jos who told of his visit to RPKās house in Sg Buloh dated back 2/5/08, the day when he & his team confisticated RPKās laptop & CPU. First, he named his team comprising a few other policemen before he had to identified each and one of them. Judge was annoyed when the policemen were seen wearing their name tag, supposingly for identification they have to remove their tag.
āKenapa masih ada yang memakai lencana ini, macam mana nak mengecam kalau dah ada lencana namaā
Worst yet, several police which is supposed to come were missing. Judge gets more angry.
āMereka sudah diberitahu Yang Arif, mungkin ā¦..(Sam: sorry I forgot he mungkin what already)ā
Judge : Mungkin? āMacam mana kamu tak tahu di mana saksi kamu?ā
Anyway, it proceed with Victor telling RPKās address in Sungai Buloh.
Bagaimana kamu pergi ke alamat tersebut? (How do you go to that place?)
Judge: Tadi di mana, sekarang bagaimana? Just now was where, now how???
RPK was shaking his head and turn to Marina, smiling and signaling walking with his fingers. We were all puzzled, by the those stupid, simple question. I mean they are from Bukit Aman, if not driving, then how?
Kami pergi dengan kenderaan tanpa logo. (They went with cars without police stickers, earlier he told that they went without uniform, all wearing plain clothes).
Bagaimana keadaan rumah semasa kamu sampai? (How is the condition when you arrived?)
Oleh kerana masih pagi, pintu pagar berkunci. Jadi kami menunggu di luar. (The gate was locked as it was still early in the morning, so we waited outside.)
Judge : Saksi jawab pada soalan sahaja. Dengar soalan betul-betul, soalannya keadaan rumah, jadi tak payah nak tambah kamu menunggu di luar.
Saya mengarahkan ? & ? (sam: sorry, again I forgot their names) memberi salam. Kami memberi salam 5-6 kali. (I directed who & who to greet. We greeted for 5-6 times)
Kemudian keluar seorang wanita dan kami memberitahu identiti serta tujuan kami. (then a woman comes out and we identified ourselves as well as the reason we come.)
Judge: Adakah wanita tersebut hadir di mahkamah sekarang ? (Is the woman here now?)
Victor: Ada Yang Arif. (Yes Your Honour)
Judge: Boleh kamu tunjukkan? Can you pointed out?
Victor : Wanita keempat di hadapan. The fourth woman in the front row.
Judge: Keempat yang mana, sebelah kanan saya atau sebelah kiri saya? (Fourth from where, my right or my left?)
Confusion arise as Victor was stumbling to identify Marina but he managed to do so after he was allowed to move nearer and pointed Marina out.
Then the witness have to identify RPK, of which the prosecution lawyer, shown Victor a picture of RPK and ask whether it was him. And Judge Rosniza Ayob gets more annoyed, RPK was here in the dock, the witness can simply pointed him out, so why the need of his picture?
I have to say, the prosecution team were dragging the case, with simple or common sense questions. It all went very slow. People goes out and people comes in, non stop. I guess there must have been a hundred people today, with 50 of us inside and many more waiting outside. Another MP came, YB Lau Weng San come and sit next to me. The Botsawanian girl I mention earlier, left half way, and RPK was suprisd to see her, he must have thought āWah MT now have international supporters as wellā
At 10.10am, we were all surprised by his arrival, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datin Wan Azizah arrived!!! RPK was clearly happy to see DSAIās arrival. DSAI sits next to Marina in the front row.
Get to smile with DSAI when he turn to look at the supporters at the back J it must have been my lucky day, managed to chat with Marina earlier, get to squeeze in for the trial, then snap RPKās picture, and also for the first time, saw DSAI face to face!!!
The trial stops at 10.25 am for a 15 minutes break. DSAI used this time to chat with RPK. Well, didn’t want to break their conversation, so I just bid my farewell with Marina and call it a day. Get out at 10.30am and saw lots of cameras outside, must be waiting for DSAI. Again another great day, hope more people will go and supports RPK, even a girl from Botswana go for RPK and please don’t tell me that you are busier than DSAI.
My thought My World 