Police tampered with evidences used against Raja Petra?

Key materials based on which the sedition charge against blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin was framed have been tampered with, his lawyer J Chandra claimed today. [Malaysiakini, 9/10/08]

October 9, 2008: The prosecution just admitted that the exhibit which forms the foundation of the charge against RPK was not originally taken from Malaysia-Today but was a police cut-&-paste job.They also did not deny that a large part of the original article is true. [Malaysia Today, 9/10/08]

On October 6, controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (image) was taken to the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court to face a sedition trial regarding his article, Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell dated April 25 on his website, Malaysia Today.

The 58 year old was charged for implying Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor were involved in the murder of Mongolian national, Altantuya Shaariibuu. Raja Petra was arrested on September 12 for another article of his for allegedly "insulting Islam" and have been sentenced to 2 years in detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

If found guilty of sedition, Raja Petra could face up to three years of imprisonment or not more than RM5,000 fine, or both. However, signs of police hanky panky in their handling of the case were already showing.

On October 9, it was reported that the prosecutor admitted that there was a mistake by the police in the exhibit that formed the foundation of the sedition charge. Raja Petra's defence lawyer J. Chandra claimed that key materials used as evidence against the blogger was altered and tempered with; possibly to frame his client.

True enough, the prosecutor conceded that the evidences brought against Raja Petra was not originally taken from his site, Malaysia Today but was also a police cut and paste job. Reports also disclosed that the prosecutor did not deny the truth contained in a large part of Raja Petra's article.

Justice Rozina Ayob, who is presiding the trial was shocked to learn that the evidences were manipulated and could therefore dismiss the sedition charge all together. However, the prosecution sought to stand down on the trial and requested for more time to decide their next decisive step as their initial charge was faulty to begin with. The court was adjourned to October 13.

This was not the first time the prosecutor embarrassed themselves over Raja Petra's sedition charge in court. On the first day of the trial, deputy public prosecutor Farhan Read summoned Harme Mohamed, a 39-year-old information technology expert from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as trial's first witness. The commission was responsible for the closure on the Malaysia Today on August 27 but the ban on the site have been lifted.

Harme was called to the stand to explain on various technical terms and the basic technology behind website hosting. The prosecutor spent 5 hours questioning the technology expert over the definitions of the internet, servers, internet service providers (ISP), online blogs, Wikipedia and so on.

Judge Rozina Ayob was reportedly annoyed with the prosecutor's irrelevant questions like Wikipedia and blogs and subsequently told Farhan to rephrase his lengthy questions and avoid repetition. However, when asked to explain the relevancy of his questions, Farhan failed to provide a sound explanation and then withdrew his prior queries.

If Raja Petra's trial wasn't already a waste of time, a 5 hour long lecture on the internet and Wikipedia by a lawyer certainly was.

During a cross-examination session, the MCMC technology expert also confessed that he was an avid Malaysia Today reader; browsing through Raja Petra's Malaysia Today at least once a week. Nonetheless, the prosecution intends to call six to seven more witnesses to testify against Raja Petra.

Perhaps six to seven more Malaysia Today readers too?

The disgraceful shams from the public prosecutor further affirms that the arrest of Raja Petra was altogether baseless and unlawful. The fact that the evidence was manipulated and the countless irrelevant questions were enough to show that the instigators of Raja Petra's downfall were indeed running in circles.

The prosecutors of this trial might just stand a better chance in proving that cows could fly rather than making a stab at framing an innocent man of a non-existant crime.