KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled to reject a police document as evidence in the Sodomy II trial today, saying a numbering mistake made it unfit to be tendered as an exhibit.Lawyers for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had objected when they learnt they had been given a different copy of a police form — “form pol 31” — requesting a chemical analysis of a set of blood samples labelled B11.
This was after the High Court here was told of several other blunders, including the dating of the documents.
One police form received by today’s central witness, Dr Seah Lay Hong, from the Petaling Jaya Chemistry Department on June 30, 2008, was dated August 28, 2008.
The government DNA scientist also disclosed in court today that the label in the form given to her by the police investigating officer, DSP Jude Pereira, had been altered to read B12 instead, and she had signed on the form to acknowledge the change.
The defence team then objected to the form being admitted, claiming the evidence had been tampered with.
Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh Deo argued that the different copy showed prejudice against the defence and must be struck out.
The prosecution led by Solicitor-General II Datuk Yusof Zainal Abiden attempted to counter the argument, claiming it was a minor error and did not affect the analysis of the samples, which were for toxicology purposes.
Justice Mohamad Zabidin disagreed and ruled in favour of the defence.
“My ruling is this, this document cannot be marked as an exhibit,” he said.
Ramkarpal later told The Malaysian Insider that the police form was important because it establishes the purpose for the analysis to be carried out.
“We know both B11 and B12 were blood samples, but we don’t know why it was changed and for what purpose,” he said.
He added that the sequence of exhibits in court now was affected.
The police’s role in the investigation against Anwar was further undermined by this latest blunder, he noted.
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