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Statements not taken from
‘important’ figures, court told
by Tan Yi Liang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Statements were not taken
from “important” figures in the sedition trial of
Malaysia-Today.net editor Raja Petra Kamarudin
and the Altantuya murder trial, including Deputy
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
and political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, as
they were “not involved” in either case, a police
officer told the sessions court here yesterday.
“(Najib) was not called in the Altantuya case
as the investigation found there was no need
to call him,” said Supt Gan Tack Guan, who
filed the police report against Raja Petra for his
article titled “Let’s send the Altantuya murderers
to hell”.
Gan, who was cross-examined by lead de-
fence counsel Gobind Singh Deo, had earlier
agreed it was “important” to question both Najib
and Razak as they were named in the article.
Gobind: Isn’t it important to get a statement
from Razak as to the article?
Gan: Yes, it is.
Gobind: It is important because Razak is
named here and also to know if it is true or not.
And is it not important to question Najib about
the article to see if the facts are true or not?
Gan: Yes.
Gobind: Was Najib questioned?
Gan: No.
Gobind: If it is important, and you agree
with me, why was Najib not questioned?
Gan: Because in the Altantuya murder case,
the investigation found that there was no need
to call him.
Gobind challenged a statement by Gan dur-
ing the examination-in-chief on Oct 9 last year
in which Gan had said that four paragraphs in
the article were “made up and untrue”.
“You said earlier that you did not investigate
the facts in the affidavit by Razak Baginda, and
you said you did not question Razak Baginda as
to the truth of his statements. You also said you
took no statement from Najib. You did not inves-
tigate. You did not question. How do you know
the paragraphs are untrue,” Gobind asked.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Roslan Mat Nor
objected to Gobind’s line of questioning.
“The witness does not have the power to
determine whether a prosecution goes on or
not. The witness is the complainant and not
the investigating officer of this case and does
not have any place to make the decision to
prosecute,” Roslan said.
He said that under the Sedition Act, it was
not a requirement to prove whether the state-
ments were true or not.
Gobind also raised an objection over Gan
referring to a paragraph not highlighted by the
prosecution.
“The charge says RPK (Raja Petra) pub-
lished an article which contains seditious mat-
ters as underlined in Appendix A (the article).
During the trial, the complainant said he lodged
a report alleging that four parts of the article
were made up and untrue. He identified those
four paragraphs, and one of the paragraphs
was not underlined by the prosecution. I asked
for clarification because the prosecution had
underlined nine paragraphs but had omitted
SHARIL AMIN/THESUN
Raja Petra
(centre)
chats with
Selangor
state
executive
councillor
Ronnie Liu
(left) and
Gobind
outside the
Petaling Jaya
sessions
court.
to underline one paragraph in the article,” he
said.
Replying, Roslan said: “They are saying
that the seditious part is only the part that is
underlined, whereas we are saying that we are
duty-bound to prosecute for the whole thing.
So we cannot say that we are only going to
prosecute for those paragraphs. That would
break up the whole article.”
He said it was for the court to rule which
elements in the article were seditious.
Gobind asked the court for time to enable
both parties to determine the law on this issue.
“My contention is that that is contrary to the
charge as the argument is that the charge is
specific to the underlined allegations. Given the
confusion, I asked the judge to grant the time
to enable both parties to research on the law
governing this point,” he said.
Sessions judge Rozina Ayob allowed the
request and adjourned the trial to tomorrow.
‘MB Nizar’ should not contest
by-election, says Nik Aziz
KOTA BARU: PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul
Aziz Nik Mat said yesterday he cannot agree to
the suggestion by the DAP that Datuk Seri Mo-
hammad Nizar Jamaluddin be fielded in the Bukit
Gantang parliamentary by-election.
He said that so long as the Pakatan Rakyat
regarded Mohammad Nizar as the Perak mentri
besar, he should not be contesting in the by-elec-
tion.
“If you ask me, I cannot accept a mentri besar
contesting in a by-election. To me, it is not right
for the ‘Perak MB’ to contest as he is already an
elected representative,” Nik Aziz told reporters
in his office.
“This is just like what the former PAS president
(the late) Datuk Asri Muda did when he contested
for both the state and parliamentary seats when
‘BN has nothing to do with Arumugam’s resignation’
ALOR STAR: The state Barisan Nasional (BN)
yesterday denied it has anything to do with the
resignation of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) as-
semblyman for Bukit Selambau, V. Arumugam.
Kedah BN chairman Datuk Seri Mahdzir Kha-
lid said the BN had never offered any money or
persuaded Pakatan Rakyat (PR) assemblymen
to join the national coalition.
He said claims by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri
Azizan Abdul Razak that Arumugam’s resignation
was due to pressure because BN had offered him
RM5 million to defect, was a wild accusation and
an attempt at shifting the blame to the BN.
theSun | WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11 2009
DAP will back
anti-hop law,
says Guan Eng
by Himanshu Bhatt
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: All the 28 DAP MPs will
support the Barisan Nasional in Parliament
if BN leaders table an anti-hopping legisla-
tion for elected assemblymen and MPs,
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said
yesterday.
“The BN needs two-thirds majority to
pass the legislation. As the BN does not
have such a majority, the DAP is willing to
give the support of its 28 MPs to such an
anti-hopping law,” he said.
The BN has 140 MPs while DAP’s Pakatan
Rakyat (PR) partners – PKR and PAS – have
31 and 22, respectively.
Asked if such a move by the DAP would
be at odds with PKR de facto leader Datuk
Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s strategy to entice BN
representatives to defect to PR, Lim said:
“Yes, I do not deny it.
“We do not sweep issues under the
carpet … I try to be my brother’s keeper,
but you cannot be a keeper all the time.”
Lim, who is also the Penang Chief Minis-
ter, said the DAP had never supported party
defections and had consistently called on
anti-hopping legislation to be initiated.
“This is DAP policy, not PR policy,” he
said.
He said DAP had been consistent on the
matter, compared to MCA and Gerakan,
“which have been fudging the issue”.
“DAP has been asking for an anti-hop-
ping law all the while. We have never
stopped asking for it,” he said, noting that
PAS has also expressed objection against
hopping.
Lim said DAP has even challenged Deputy
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
to table such an enactment.
“Only MCA and Gerakan have not made
their stands clear on this matter,” he said,
challenging MCA president Datuk Seri Ong
Tee Keat to state his position.
Lim said this after officiating at the
ceremonial ground-breaking of the Silver
Jubilee Home’s new facilities development
project here.
On Sunday, Lim, who is the Bagan MP,
and his father Kit Siang, who is the Ipoh
Timur MP, were criticised by DAP chairman
Karpal Singh for supporting Anwar on the
issue of defections.
he was the Kelantan mentri besar.”
Nik Aziz commended former Kedah state
executive council member V. Arumugam for
vacating his Bukit Selambau state seat, saying
the former Parti Keadilan Rakyat assemblyman
was a man with principle.
He also said he did not mind if the Bukit Gan-
tang parliamentary and Bukit Selambau state
by-elections were to be held simultaneously.
“Elections are the hallmark of a democratic
system. I don’t have any objection if both by-elec-
tions are held simultaneously. I will be campaigin-
ing... if health permits,” he said.
The Bukit Gantang seat fell vacant following
the death of PAS MP Roslan Shaharum, 50, on
Monday. Bukit Selambau was vacated by Arumu-
gam, also effective the same day. – Bernama
“No one has come to pressurise him to join
the BN; the issue of BN offering money does not
arise at all,” he told reporters after meeting the
state MIC liaison committee here.
“There are two things here,” Mahdzir said,
“Firstly, the PR is facing internal problems and
secondly, due to the internal problems, some of
PR assemblymen are leaving to join the BN.”
He said Arumugam was actually having
problems with the palace and as a mentri
besar, it was Azizan’s responsibility to sort the
things out and not pointing fingers at others.
– Bernama