Trial of 30 people linked to Lahad Datu intrusion resumes

KOTA KINABALU: The trial of 30 individuals charged with various offences linked to the intrusion in Lahad Datu last year continued today, after nearly two months of adjournment.
The prosecution's 32nd witness, investigating officer Inspector Jamirin Kintai, continued his testimony by identifying items handed over to him by a General Operations Force officer, ASP Mursalim Mohd Salleh, who seized the items following a skirmish at Kampung Tanjung Batu, Lahad Datu, on March 8 last year.
Among the items he identified were several white T-shirts, a yellow T-shirt, two knives and a machete sheath made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) attached to a 96cm long black belt.
Since the machete sheath was produced in court for the first time, Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar applied to the court to tender it as an exhibit, instead of evidence. This, he said, was because the machete sheath had not been identified by Mursalim as one of the items he seized when he took the witness stand.
Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are being tried in the case, in which some are facing multiple charges of being members of a terrorist group or waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or willfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.
They allegedly committed the offences between Feb 12 and April 10 last year. The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department continues tomorrow. – Bernama