MACC Investigating Officer (IO) throws Court into utter confusion in Dato’ Ramli’s Trial

By Din Merican

Thursday, August 5, 2010 was the fourth and last day of Dato’ Ramli’s Trial in the Summons case. One would have thought that by now the charge made out by the MACC would be clear. One would have thought that the cardinal rule for prosecuting someone is that the charge must be so precise and as clear as daylight, so that the accused is left in no doubt as to what wrong he had committed in order to prepare his defence. However, as events have shown, nothing is clear when it involves the MACC.

Teoh Beng Hock Not Forgotten

One year ago Teoh Beng Hock was found dead. There was confusion why he died. There was confusion why he was brought in and detained by the MACC. Was he under arrest? Was he a suspect? If he was a suspect under custody, the law provided for protection of suspects while under custody. Nobody seems to know. What everybody knew was that his dead body was found outside the Selangor MACC Office. To avoid answering all that complicated questions, the MACC denied he was in their custody. The MACC insisted that Teoh did not die in their office, but that his dead body was found 12 floors down from their office. Yes, 12 floors down, thrown from out of the window of the MACC’s office!

 

The MACC said Teoh was already released at 6 am but that he chose to hang around and slept on the sofa in the MACC office. Then the MACC said Teoh was just a witness. If Teoh was a witness why did he have to die? What the MACC failed to show was that bit of decency of being honest. Until today Teoh’s  family is till mourning his death. Until today Teoh’ s spirit wants to know why his physical body had to die. Until today Teoh’s spirit is restless and refuse to stop roaming the MACC’s office. Until today, Teoh’s spirit haunts the MACC. It will not go away until there is an answer for his death. What offends Teoh’s spirit, Teoh’s family and all Malaysians is the attempt at cover up.

MACC Antics : Amending Charges, Twisting Evidence and Changing Judges

The antics of the MACC never cease to amaze me as I observe the Trial of Dato’ Ramli Yusuff. It has become a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the MACC to amend the charge when the evidence from the witnesses do not favour them.  So it was in Sabah when they amended the charge twice. They even amended it at the close of the case as a last grasp at the straws when the facts and evidence do not support the charge that they had to prove. And Judge Supang Lian wasn’t amused and dismissed the case without even calling for the defence of Dato’ Ramli. The MACC also amended the charges in KL before Judge M Gunalen. And that again resulted in the good Judge to hold there was a failure by MACC to prove a prima facie case.  In other words, these two Judges would not be party to the MACC’s and AG Gani Patail’s attempt to fix up a case against Dato’ Ramli.

Now they have done it again for Dato’ Ramli’s trial on the Summons charge which started on Monday, August 2, 2010 .They are changing the date of the offence for the charge they have made out against Dato’ Rami. They are doing what they did against Anwar Ibrahim in Sodomy I when it was found out that Tivoli Villas and the wing annexe of PJ Hilton were not constructed at the time of the alleged offence. Fate has a strange way of bringing the lives of these two men to a parallel.

When Anwar Ibrahim was arrested and assaulted by then IGP Rahim Noor, Dato’ Ramli was the Deputy Director CID. He was at that time Musa Hassan’s boss. Dato’ Ramli was the one who prevented Rahim Noor from bludgeoning Anwar further and saving him. Dato’ Ramli was the one who gave medical attention to Anwar. After that incident, charges were fabricated against Anwar and he was convicted. Dato’ Ramli was sent into exile to be Commissioner Sabah and was cold storaged.

Musa Hassan: From Subordinate to Boss

Musa Hassan rose to become IGP overtaking Dato’ Ramli, the man who was once his boss. Despite Dato’ Ramli having given Musa Hassan two promotions, Musa Hassan knew Dato’ Ramli will always remain as a threat and worked tirelessly to bring Dato Ramli down. That is where the scene is today – Musa Hassan is IGP and Ramli sits in the dock as an accused person. But even as they fixed Anwar and botched up, the same is happening in Dato’ Ramli’s case. They just can’t put their act together even when they try to fix people up.

The Case before Justice SM Komathy Suppiah

Nothing could be more comical than to see the confusion in the court as Judge SM Komathy Suppiah heard the evidence of the MACC’s witnesses after the charge was amended to change the time of the offence. Déjà vu of  Anwar’s Sodomy I Trial. Then the MACC brought in company secretary, Misss Mahinder Kaur a/p Teja Singh MAICSA No. 7007064 of MK Secretarial Services to show that Dato’ Ramli was a director of Kinsajaya Sdn Bhd at a particular point of time. Unfortunately for MACC, Mahinder said that as at the date of the Charge, Dato’ Ramli was not yet a director as the Form 49 was only lodged with the Company’s Commission of Malaysia (CCM) much later. Mahinder also startled Judge Komathy when she said that MACC officers asked her to cancel several documents : “ The MACC Officers asked me to do so”.

Earlier on in Dato’ Ramli’s Sabah’s trial, MACC Superintendant Sok One a/l Essen already admitted that he destroyed the piece of paper that he wrote on to record a phone call from a Sabah village headman. In other words, he destroyed evidence. Now in this trial, Mahinder says that MACC asked her to cancel various documents in order that they can use a particular document to support the charge against Dato’ Ramli. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Mahinder then said that the accounts of Kinsajaya showed that it was a company that was bought off the shelf and that it was a dormant company and there was no business activity until today!

That jolted the erudite Judge Komathy to ask “What is the Charge?” What is it that Dato’ Ramli has done wrong? That was the beginning when things started to crumble for the MACC.Indeed, what exactly did Dato’ Ramli violated?

According to the charge, Ramli had breached Reg. 5(1)(a) Peraturan Pegawai Awam Kelakuan dn Tatatertib 1993 (Pindaan 2002) for being involved in “trading” through Kinsajaya. But Mahinder now says that Kinsajaya is dormant and has no activities. In any event, the Peraturan prescribed its own punishment as a departmental breach and not for any punishment under the Penal Code.

Another MACC witness, Mr Lee who is the Deputy Director of Land Survey Dept of Sabah confirmed Mahinder’s evidence and said that no agricultural activity had taken place because the survey has not been completed. In fact, Kinsajaya did not even get the land approved by the State Government what more to carry out any activity or business on the land!

The Comic In Court: MACC IO Wan Abdul Rahman

Things got worse when the star witness, Investigating Officer (IO) Wan Abdul Rahman, was cross examined by the much respected Dato’ Seri Shafee Abdullah. He contradicted the whole charge when he unabashedly admitted that his investigations showed that Kinsajaya was a dormant company and has not carried on any business and even said unequivocally “Kinsajaya tidak ada perniagaan!” after being cornered countless times for his inconsistent answers.

Still bewildered by the slew of questions, the IO even confirmed that his investigation showed that Dato’ Ramli has no involvement in the business of Kinsjaya although he had earlier said that Dato Ramli has committed an offence under section 168 of the Penal Code.

This befuddled IO Wan Abdul Rahman can’t seem to understand that Section 168 which makes it an offence for a civil servant to carry on trading would not, by his own admission, apply to Dato’ Ramli if Dato’ Ramli has no involvement in business and Kinsajaya is a dormant company. “ Its elementary my dear Watson” is what Sherlock Holmes would have said.

With the situation being hopeless, the two DPPs tried to shield him and sought a 15 minutes break. Things did not, however, abate after the break when IO Wan Abdul Rahman became moré incoherent in his answers to the point of being bizzare, contradicting himself at every turn. It became very clear that IO Wan Abdul Rahman was just a foot soldier being sent to the front lines to be shot at. That is what happens when the MACC is used to fix someone.

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