Former Umno supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam’s contempt proceedings for insulting an officer of the court and stating that the legal system in the country was “not fair” will resume on Aug 3, following new developments in today’s hearing in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Defence counsel K Balaguru claimed before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah that the alleged incident on June 30, raised by deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran, was “triple hearsay”.
“When your Lordship was informed on June 30 by Rozela of the incident, she had heard it from your SAR (senior assistant registrar) who had heard it from Walter (the police officer).
“We are looking at triple hearsay,” Balaguru said this morning.
According to the show-cause letter issued to Lokman (above), Walter had asked him to stop using his phone, which led to the Umno man allegedly calling the officer “stupid”.
Lokman, who was seen standing in the public gallery interjected and said: “I only asked him (police officer) why taking notes using a laptop is allowed and using a handphone is not. I even showed him the notes that I took. I didn’t say ‘stupid’ to the policeman, I just said the law is stupid. This is unfair.”
The incident occurred during Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering trial.
No judge recusal
Balaguru also requested that Sequerah recuses himself from the case and for his client to be imposed with a different charge, arguing that Lokman did not disrupt court proceedings until Raja Rozela had informed the judge of the incident.
However, Sequerah questioned Lokman’s intention of taking notes during the court proceedings.
“You can’t allow members of the public to make their own rules and impede the police officers from doing their jobs, which are instructions I gave them.
“In his case, he (Lokman) said he was taking down (notes of) the proceedings. He is not a court reporter. What business does he have to do this?” the judge questioned.
Sequerah ruled that he would not recuse himself from the case and informed Balaguru that Lokman had written a letter to the police officer and the court to apologise for his actions.
“He called the court standard operating procedures (SOPs) stupid. He called the whole system stupid,” he said.
This prompted Balaguru to request for Raja Rozela to be subpoenaed to testify on what had been uttered by Lokman.
During the previous hearing of the contempt application before Sequerah on Monday, Lokman had taken the stand without a lawyer present. He denied the allegations made in the show-cause notice.
Sequerah fixed Aug 3 for the next hearing after Balaguru informed the court that his client claimed trial.
Contempt of court refers to where the administration of the legal system or course of justice is interfered with or obstructed.
Lokman could face either a fine or a jail term if found to have been in contempt. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.