Hole found in floor of room where accused held
Published on: Friday, November 28, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: A hole was found in the floor of a room of a wooden house where one of the accused in the Lahad Datu intrusion trial was arrested, the High Court here was told Thursday. Bukit Aman Technical Assistance Head of the Special Action Unit (UTK), DSP Mohd Nasaruddin M. Nasir, said he found two pieces of plywood with a wooden handle on the floor of the room, where Tani Lahaddahi was arrested, which revealed a hole that was big enough for a male adult to go through."When I went down the hole, no weapons were found. But it (hole) was dangerous, " he said.
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Testifying at the trial of 30 accused facing various offences relating to the intrusion in February last year, Mohd Nasaruddin said the room had no door and windows and was hidden next to the kitchen in the house.He said the room was separated from the kitchen by two or three pieces of plywood which he found strange and after removing the plywood easily, he found the accused and a woman sleeping.Mohd Nasaruddin said he and his team were instructed to ambush the wooden house at Kampung Perigi in Semporna, where Tani was traced to by a tracking team from the Bukit Aman Special Branch, at about 9am on March 10 last year.Mohd Nasaruddin said a body search on Tani resulted in the discovery of an old model of a Nokia handphone, which was handed over to Bukit Aman SB (Special Branch) officer ASP Nik Adzian Wan Ismail who then returned the handphone back to the witness four to five minutes later.
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Asked by deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar if Nik Adzian had said anything to him when returning the handphone, the UTK officer said Nik Adzian told him the handphone's number matched the telephone number which the SB officer was looking for.Mohd Nasaruddin also said he was certain the man in the hidden room was the suspect the police was looking for.
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He explained this was based on the description given to him by his superior that the suspect was tall with fair skin and was in his 60s.He also said he had asked the man if he was Tani on the day of his arrest to which the accused admitted that was his name.Mohd Nasaruddin said he and his team brought the accused and six other occupants of the house to the Semporna police headquarters to lodge a police report of the arrest.In the dock Thursday were 27 Filipinos and three local residents who are facing one or multiple charges.They are accused of being members of a terrorist group, waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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