It was like a comedy scene from a courtroom drama at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today.
At the hearing of the eight people charged for illegal assembly at the Bar Council’s Human Rights Festival last year, two police witnesses and one accused were missing when the trial began today.
Appearing flustered and amused at times, sessions court judge Komathy Suppiah decided to postpone the case to Wednesday to allow time for the witnesses to be present.
Komathy is presiding over the case where eight people, including five lawyers, were charged with participating in an illegal assembly and disobeying police orders to disperse.
The eight include lawyers N Surendran, Latheefa Koya, R Sivarasa, Eric Paulsen and Amer Hamzah. The remaining three are Noor Aza Othman, Anthony Andu and Indian national Ashraf Ali.
They were arrested when then marched from the Sogo department store to Central Market in Kuala Lumpur (pix above and below) to mark International Human Rights Day on December 9 last year.
The arrests came after a failed attempt by the organisers of the march to negotiate with the police to allow them to end their march at their intended spot.
Left the court house
Lawyer for the eight accused M Puravelan got the ‘missing persons’ scene rolling by apologising on behalf of Sivarasa who was not present in court because of he was attending today’s parliamentary session.
Also missing was businessperson Ashraf whose bailor Jonson Chong told the court that former could not be contacted for the past several weeks.
"I think he could be ill but I will contact his relatives in Singapore to find out his whereabouts," said Chong. Komathy, however, then told counsel to proceed regardless.
DPP Raja Rozela Raja Toran then proceeded to call the first witnesses, a police photographer indentified as Lance Corporal Khairul Anuar Othman.
After being told that he was not present too, the prosecutor then called for the second witness Sergeant Zainal Sedek to the reply: ‘Tak ada orang lah’ (There is nobody here by that name) to the amusement of those in the public gallery.
After standing down for 10 minutes, Raja Rozela cleared the confusion by explaining that the two witnesses had been prematurely informed by the court’s police personnel that the case had been postponed and as such they left the court house.
"I was not informed that he two witnesses were told that the case will not be taking place. I did not know they left," he told the court.
Komathy then chided the DPP for failing to ensure witnesses remained in court and also warned court police personnel to ‘be careful the next time’.
‘No comment’
She then adjourned the hearing which had lasted for one-and-a-half hours and postponed it to Wednesday.
After this was decided, Puravalen told Komathy that he will no longer represent Asraf if he does not appear in court on that day.
Meanwhile, court police personnel refused to comment on the missing witnesses when approached by reporters.
At the hearing of the eight people charged for illegal assembly at the Bar Council’s Human Rights Festival last year, two police witnesses and one accused were missing when the trial began today.
Appearing flustered and amused at times, sessions court judge Komathy Suppiah decided to postpone the case to Wednesday to allow time for the witnesses to be present.
Komathy is presiding over the case where eight people, including five lawyers, were charged with participating in an illegal assembly and disobeying police orders to disperse.
The eight include lawyers N Surendran, Latheefa Koya, R Sivarasa, Eric Paulsen and Amer Hamzah. The remaining three are Noor Aza Othman, Anthony Andu and Indian national Ashraf Ali.
They were arrested when then marched from the Sogo department store to Central Market in Kuala Lumpur (pix above and below) to mark International Human Rights Day on December 9 last year.
The arrests came after a failed attempt by the organisers of the march to negotiate with the police to allow them to end their march at their intended spot.
Left the court house
Lawyer for the eight accused M Puravelan got the ‘missing persons’ scene rolling by apologising on behalf of Sivarasa who was not present in court because of he was attending today’s parliamentary session.
Also missing was businessperson Ashraf whose bailor Jonson Chong told the court that former could not be contacted for the past several weeks.
"I think he could be ill but I will contact his relatives in Singapore to find out his whereabouts," said Chong. Komathy, however, then told counsel to proceed regardless.
DPP Raja Rozela Raja Toran then proceeded to call the first witnesses, a police photographer indentified as Lance Corporal Khairul Anuar Othman.
After being told that he was not present too, the prosecutor then called for the second witness Sergeant Zainal Sedek to the reply: ‘Tak ada orang lah’ (There is nobody here by that name) to the amusement of those in the public gallery.
After standing down for 10 minutes, Raja Rozela cleared the confusion by explaining that the two witnesses had been prematurely informed by the court’s police personnel that the case had been postponed and as such they left the court house.
"I was not informed that he two witnesses were told that the case will not be taking place. I did not know they left," he told the court.
Komathy then chided the DPP for failing to ensure witnesses remained in court and also warned court police personnel to ‘be careful the next time’.
‘No comment’
She then adjourned the hearing which had lasted for one-and-a-half hours and postponed it to Wednesday.
After this was decided, Puravalen told Komathy that he will no longer represent Asraf if he does not appear in court on that day.
Meanwhile, court police personnel refused to comment on the missing witnesses when approached by reporters.
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