RAJA PETRA SEDITION TRIAL: 'Prosecution running helter-skelter'
Posted by ADMIN
(NST) "I have not even started to cross-examine the witness and they are already panicky. The prosecution is running helter-skelter to get a second report."
This was the comment by Raja Petra Kamarudin's counsel, J. Chandra, on an application made by the prosecution in the sedition trial at the Sessions Court yesterday.
The prosecution had applied for the analysis of all the folders in the Dell central processing unit (CPU) and the Asus notebook which were seized from Raja Petra's house.
Lead deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusof made the application yesterday before judge Rozana Ayob.
He said that the seventh witness, ASP Wa'ie Isqal Kria Abdullah from the Computer Forensic Investigations Unit in Bukit Aman, had testified on Monday that there were several folders in the two units which were not viewed or read.
He said that the application was to allow Wa'ie to analyse the remaining folders and to come up with a report on his findings.
In objecting, Chandra submitted that the witness was given particular terms of reference which he had followed when writing the report.
"The prosecution has the report (computer forensic report of the CPU and notebook) and the witness' terms of reference were very specific.
"He was not authorised to look at any other folder," he said.
Chandra also submitted on the issue of relevancy.
"The prosecution had made the application on grounds that there are other folders and that it should be open and read.
"There is no evidence if these folders are relevant to the subject matter," he said, adding that there was also no evidence of how many folders there were.
"Neither has the witness stated that he has not examined any folder which was within his terms of reference."
Ishak argued that the relevance of the folders to be analysed was yet to be known.
"It can be in favour of the prosecution or the defence.
"As such, it is important for these folders to be opened and read for the court to reach a fair decision."
Deputy public prosecutor Roslan Mat Nor, who is assisting Ishak, said it was only fair for the witness to read the contents of the folders so that the prosecution could produce complete evidence of what was in the computer.
Rozana is expected to give her decision this morning when the trial continues.
Raja Petra, 58, is charged with posting a seditious article on his website, Malaysia Today, at www.malaysia-today.net titled "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell".
The article implicated Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the murder of Altantunya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian wo-man.
The offence was alleged to have been committed at his house at No 5, Jalan BRP 5/5, Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh, on April 25.
Earlier, during the proceedings, to a question posed by deputy public prosecutor Farhan Read, Wa'ie testified that the user of the Asus notebook might have deleted the temporary files using a programme called CleanIt.exe.
He said this could be the reason why there were no Internet entries to the website recorded between April 11 and April 26.
"CleanIt.exe is a programme that allows the user to set the date, time and location in order to delete the temporary files."
Farhan: Why do you say the programme could have been used?
Wa'ie: Although there were several entries to the website in 2008, there were no entries recorded during this period of time. As such, I think this programme could have been used to delete the entries.
Wa'ie also said that based on his analysis, the article which was requested by DSP Mahfuz was not found in the CPU and also there were no entries made to the Malaysia Today website.
"The article was also not found in the notebook."
Hearing continues.
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