Ebit Lew trial: Witness says porn sites found in phone browsing history

 

The seventh witness in the trial of preacher Ebit Irawan Ibrahim Lew or Ebit Lew told the magistrate’s court here today that she found a history of pornographic websites surfed from a mobile phone which she had analysed. -Bernama file pic

TENOM: The seventh witness in the trial of preacher Ebit Irawan Ibrahim Lew or Ebit Lew told the magistrate's court here today that she found a history of pornographic websites surfed from a mobile phone which she had analysed.

Police's senior audio video analyst Assistant Superintendent Latifah Abdul Aziz, 43, said the websites were accessed from the Google application and the results of the analysis were included in a DVD-R disc to be handed over to the case investigating officer.

"From all the screenshots I had taken, there were several websites suspected of being obscene and also those that were not," she said during examination-in-chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Nor Azizah Mohamad at the trial.

For confirmation purposes, she accessed several of the websites and found them to be pornographic in nature.

Latifah said that among the websites also browsed were Wikipedia, with searches on "sexual harassment", "Sexual harassment laws in Malaysia", "Jail risk from obscene jokes" and "Sexual offences punishment Bill".

Nor Azizah: Can the metadata that you mentioned also be seen in the screenshots of this analysis?

Latifah: Yes, for the first picture, this is a summary of all the screenshots from the browsing history in the case exhibit (mobile phone).

The accused was given permission by Magistrate Nur Asyraf Zolhani not to attend trial today after his lawyer, Ram Singh, informed the court that Ebit was performing the Hajj in Makkah.

During the morning trial session, Latifah informed the court that another phone she had analysed contained 219 screenshots of conversations from the WhatsApp application starting from March 4, 2021.

These screenshots were saved in a compact disc, she added.

She said picture one showed the phone number belonging to the sender and also March 4, 2021, which is the date when the conversation began while the following screenshots were the conversations that took place.

Latifah said a screenshot also showed that there was an unanswered voice call sent from the sender made at 6.10 pm, but the date was not mentioned in court.

She said there were also unanswered calls on March 15 and March 16, 2021.

Another screenshot showed that on March 17, 2021, there was a 'retry' attempt to send a message but it was not delivered, Latifah said.

Ebit Lew, 37, faces 11 charges, including insulting the modesty of a woman in her 40s by sending obscene words and pictures to the victim's phone number via the WhatsApp application between March and June 2021.

The charge under Section 509 of the Penal Code provides for a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine or both, upon conviction.

The trial continues tomorrow. -- Bernama