PETALING JAYA, 10 Feb 2009: The prosecution’s fifth witness in the sedition case involving blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin told the Sessions Court here today that no statement was recorded from Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Supt Gan Tack Guan, who is the assistant director of the Interpol National Centre Bureau, said this was because police investigations had established that the Deputy Prime Minister was not involved in the Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.
“He (Najib) was not called to give a statement because all police investigations in the case found he was not involved in it,” he said.
However, Raja Petra’s counsel, Gobind Singh Deo, objected and asked how he could have come to such a conclusion when not a single statement was recorded from Najib.
Gan maintained that it was not necessary to question Najib because there was nothing to show he was involved.
It only got Gobind to be riled up and he questioned why this was so when the alleged seditious article, Let’s Send the Altantuya Murderers to Hell, mentioned Najib’s name.
“In the investigation process we have to establish the involvement of the person or persons. All witnesses are important, in this case, Najib had no involvement and that is why there was no need to record his statement,” said Gan.
During the hearing on10 Oct last year, Gan had stated that as the chief investigator in the Altantuya case, he had been responsible for lodging a police report at the Tun HS Lee police station here on 30 April 2008 over the article because the issues raised in it were not true and were fabrications.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Roslan Mat Nor then stepped in and objected to Gobind’s line of questioning and complained that the counsel was trying to inject political elements because the witness did not have the powers to give replies.
“The witness is the complainant in this case and not the investigating officer. He does not have powers to make any suggestion on how it is to be prosecuted,” he said.
On 6 May 2008, Raja Petra, 59, pleaded not guilty to committing sedition by posting the article on his www.malaysia-today.net website on 25 April 2008.
The hearing before Judge Rozina Ayob continues on 12 Feb. — Bernama
Eric says
Honestly guys, I’d rather you do not report at all rather than putting up Bernama’s propaganda. Their reports are so selective and one-sided they are nauseating.
Jacqueline Ann Surin says
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your comment.
Good journalism is costly. Extensive and comprehensive good journalism even more so. As a small start-up, there is no way The Nut Graph, or any other media outfit for that matter, can cover everything all on their own.
Our job as journalists is to provide as many different view points of as many different events or issues as we can to the reader. Readers then have the responsibility of assessing critically the news they consume.
Additionally, our job as journalists isn’t just to report on views we agree with. It would be unprofessional for us if we only reported on views we agreed with. In fact, it is critical that what government agencies and leaders, and politicians do or say get reported so that the rakyat can then make informed choices about who they elect into power.
Bernama serves a particular function. In some ways, it is an indispensable function to both media outfits and readers.
Jacqueline Ann Surin
Editor
The Nut Graph