Argument erupts over photo at Pastor Koh inquiry

15th Nov 2017

This was because there was an argument between police observers and lawyers over photo evidence.

Police observers at the Suhakam inquiry yesterday objected to the photo submitted on Nov 3 by the lawyers during another inquiry on the disappearances of Koh, Perlis activist Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife Ruth Hilmi. The lawyers had submitted a photo from an online news portal to the panel showing two masked policemen wearing uniforms without the police insignia arresting a suspect during a police operation.

They wanted to identify whether these were policemen in police outfits to a witness, investigating officer Asst Supt Supari Muhammad.

Police observers, however, requested for the photo evidence to be expunged and for the witness’ statement to be retracted, claiming that the photo used by the lawyers was a “cut and paste job”.

They added that they would be taking action against the lawyers under Section 192 of the Penal Code for fabricating evidence if it was not retracted.

“It is a serious offence because they presented a confusing piece of evidence,” said the police observers, who argued that the photo used by the lawyers was different from the one found on the website.

The police observers did not appear to notice that the news article actually had two photos.

Inquiry panel chairman Datuk Mah Weng Kwai then said that there were actually two photos in the gallery and confirmed that no cut and paste work was involved.

The issue was finally ironed out after a discussion was held shortly after 4pm between the inquiry panel with the police observers and the lawyers.

The photo and witness statement on Nov 3 will not be expunged.

Koh, 63, was abducted from his car by a group of men along Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya at about 11am on Feb 13 while on his way to a friend’s house.

The inquiry will resume today with ASP Supari taking the witness stand at 9am.

Article found at: https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/national/argument-erupts-over-photo-at-pastor-koh-inquiry/ar-BBF0RWY