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Day 32 Trial

ABOVE: Malaysiakini headline story details H E R E on Day 32 Trial which will go into recess for 3 weeks and resumes on Sept 3 for a "trial-within-a-trial" until the Case ends. The prosecution witness was on the stand for 6 straight days - took the rap from Counsel and explained his errors and Sirul's counsel was unwell to have the Trial-within-a-trial at 4.30pm.
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'I made mistake in address' (from SUN, a very brief report as the usual team was not on)

SHAH ALAM (August 9, 2007): Prosecution witness ASP Zulkarnain Samsudin (ABOVE) admitted in the High Court he made a mistake in the address of an apartment owned by murder accused Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar, where jewellery belonging to Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu was discovered. Asked by DPP Tun Majid Tun Hamzah during re-examination how he discovered his mistake, Zulkarnain said he obtained the unit number 5-2-4 from either a bill or an envelope found in the unit. However, he remembered seeing the number on the door and corrected it to 5-3-7 on a search list on the same day.

Asked how a police report lodged by him on the discovery of a jacket and jewellery contained the wrong apartment number, he said he took back a pile of envelopes to his office and he relied on the information on them when he lodged a report on Nov 7. He realised his mistake when he handed over the jewellery and jacket to an investigating officer. He called the information technology department of Bukit Aman a few times to try and correct the mistake but the line was busy. There were only three lines for the whole of Malaysia to call the department. He said he could only correct his mistake in December.

"Apart from this, I was involved in other cases," he said, adding that he had also forgotten about it. Questions over the differing addresses were first raised on Friday, when the court and the prosecution had a version of a police report that was different from that of Sirul Azhar's defence counsel. The prosecution had Sirul Azhar's apartment number as 5-3-7 while the defence had the number as 5-2-4. To another question, Zulkarnain said the photographs taken at the apartment were spontaneous ones. He said he did not ask Sirul Azhar to hold the jacket or show the jewellery like it appeared in the police photograph.

ABOVE: Kamarul Hisham arriving well in the morning but insisted he was not feeling well (BELOW) when the judge wanted to carry out the Trial-within-a-trial at the end of the day.

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2007/08/10

Altantuya murder trial: Witness: I took a month to correct mistakes
By : V. Anbalagan and Rita Jong, NST
ASP Zulkarnain Samsudin says it slipped his mind as he had other cases to handle

SHAH ALAM: It took more than a month for a police officer to correct mistakes in a report he had lodged on the seizures he made while investigating the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu. ASP Zulkarnain Samsudin, the 23rd prosecution witness, also admitted to trial judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin that the delay was due to his oversight. The witness lodged the initial report about 7pm on Nov 7 last year after seizing Altantuya’s jewellery from Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar’s apartment in Kota Damansara. He also seized Sirul’s jacket. In that report, Zukarnain had stated that the seizure of the jacket and jewellery was at flat number "5-2-4". Zulkarnain admitted in court that the address was wrong as he had relied on the information from an utility bill or an envelope which he took from Sirul’s apartment. He said Sirul’s addrress should have been "5-3-7".

Zulkarnain said he spotted the mistake at 11.30pm on the same day when he handed over the seized items to investigating officer ASP Tonny Lunggan.
"I spotted the mistake after reading through the report again," he said when re-examined by deputy public prosecutor Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah.
DPP: What did you do?
Zulkarnain: I immediately contacted Bukit Aman’s IT division to make the correction but no one picked up the calls despite several attempts.
DPP: When did you finally rectify the matter?
Zulkarnain: On Dec 13, which was more than a month after the first report was made.
DPP: Why did you take so long?
Zulkarnain: I had other cases to handle. It just slipped my mind.
Mohd Zaki: So you totally forgot?
Zulkarnain: Yes.
The witness said he made two or three attempts to contact the IT personnel but could not reach them.
"The division had only three telephone lines which served the entire nation," he said.
Earlier, Zulkarnain was asked to explain how "5-2-4" still existed in the first report.
During cross-examination by Wong Kian Kheong, who is appearing for Abdul Razak Baginda, the witness admitted that he had thrown away the letters he took from Sirul’s apartment (to obtain the full address) on Nov 7.
Zulkarnain also said he did not record this in his investigation diary. He also said he could not remember if he threw away the utility bill or had handed it over to Tonny.

ABOVE: KK Wong (Abdul Razak's lawyer) and his assistant and BELOW: Leaving court

Wong: (ABOVE) Do you know that under Section 143 of the Criminal Procedure Code, whatever item seized should be referred to a magistrate before it is discarded?
Zulkarnain: No.
Sirul, 31 and Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 36, both members of the Special Action Squad, are charged with the murder of the Mongolian at Mukim Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20 last year. Razak, 47, a political analyst, is charged with abetting them.

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ABOVE & BELOW: The lawyers for Azilah

= = == = =Watch the Video Clip (1 min 42s) - Day 32 Trial

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