Source: Sarawak Tribune, July 1 1994
THREE BERAWAN DISCHARGED
MIRI - Three Berawan charged for committing mischief by fire in
Mulu National Park, were yesterday discharged not amounting to
an acquittal.
Session Court Judge Rajendran Nagayam found that there was no
thorough evaluation of caution statements recorded and how the
statements were gathered from the accused persons.
As such, he expressed the view that the prosecution had acted
correctly in referring the case to the DPP and in discontinuing
the case until the matter had been further studied by the DPP.
The judge felt that there was oppression, slack in lock-up rule
and hours of "interviews" in an air-conditioned room with the fan
switched on and that the prosecution conceded it was not in the
lock-up.
Prior to the ruling, ASP Jabu Entinggie was prdered to find out
from the DPP during the court break whether to proceed without
investigation being done on the interrogation teams as the case
centred on the caution statements of the accused persons.
ASP Jabu told the court later that he had personally contacted
Senior Federal Counsel Thomas Akin in Kuching who advised him to
discharge the accused persons until further investigation. He
added that the SFC had also been closely monitoring the case for
the last three days.
According to Mr. Rajendran, the whole case against the accused
persons was based on their caution statements made to the police
under Section 113 of Criminal Procedure Code. As the defence's
main attack would involve the caution statements, he said it was
unfortunate that the investigation of the case had not cover the
recording of the caution statements.
"This is to say no statements were recorded from the
interrogating officer to rebutt any allegation made by the
accused," the judge pointed out.
Since investigation did not cover this aspect of the case, he
said the prosecution did not cross examine the accused on the
alleged assault aggression.
The judge advised the police that in future cases when everything
was based on the caution statement .. the statement must record
the interrogation, person-in-charge of lock-up where the accused
is kept, person who supplied food and water to the accused, and
also kept a complete record of movement of the accused from the
time of arrest until the recording of statement.
He said all these records must be kept so that the prosecuting
officer would be able to rebutt any allegation made by the
accused. Further, he said with the information, the prosecution
would be able to evaluate whether the statement was properly
recorded and given voluntarily before the accused was charged in
court.
Sgt. Ismail Selai was called to testify before a short
adjournment to enable the prosecution to contact the DPP.
Sgt. Ismail said he was only assigned to interview the first
accused, Willie Kajan, in the company of lance corporal Mohd Ali.
The interview was from 8.30 am to 10.30 am and he denied ever
hitting the accused, adding that Inspector Ooi, the interrogation
chief, took over from them later.
Cross examined by counsel John Trang, Sgt. Ismail who had served
the force for 26 years, said that he could not differentiate
between interview and interrogation.
On Wednesday, the first accused, Willie Kajan told the court that
he sought medical treatment at Marudi hospital while continuing
his remand in the Marudi lock-up after a period in Miri Police
Station. He said Marudi police brought him to Marudi hospital,
and later for further treatment at Ling's Clinic in Marudi. On
May 16, after passing out blood, he went for medical check up at
Judson's Clinic in Miri.
The medical reports from hospital and clinics were produced in
court which apparently had taken both the prosecution and court
aback.
Willie claimed he was hit in the belly and cheek, pushed to the
wall, kicked on the legs and oftenly asked to do push-ups during
the interrogation in Central Police Station Miri.
He also alleged that at least one officer had threatened to
detain him further under the Internal Security Act if he refused
to confess in a caution statement.
The three discharged were Willie Kajan 38, Solomon Malang 25, and
Gary Hassim 28, for offence under Section 435 of the Penal Code.
They were accused of setting ablaze the generator houses at Clear
Water Cave and Wind Cave in Mulu National Park on February 11.
Another accused, Ugom Jalong 39, had his trial fixed for August
9, 10 and 11 next year for allegedly setting ablaze a chalet cum
observatory tower near Deer Cave and Lang Cave.
---------- end of newspaper report ----------
Additional information: The three accused were rearrested outside
the court house and brought to the police station in Miri but
they were released later without charge.
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