The attitude of the defence counsel and deputy public prosecutor at the hearing on the corruption case against the former Director-general of Immigration, Wahid Md Don, at the Sessions Court here today had annoyed presiding judge Rosbiahanin Ariffin.

She also appeared to be disappointed when defence counsel V Sithambaram and deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Kamal Arifin failed to control their emotions that led them into making submissions simultaneously.

The disorderly situation persisted for some time and the counsels had ignored several reminders from Rosbiahanin, which forced her to stop the proceedings for almost 15 minutes.

wahid mohd don immigration It started when Ahmad Kamal objected to the question posed by Sithambaram, who represented Wahid ( left ), on the contents of the recording of the conversation by the 13th prosecution's witness in the corruption case.

Sithambaram's question to Mohd Haris Ibrahim, 33, which led to the heated exchange was "whether Mohd Haris had given the same statement to the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) as the one given at the proceedings today".

However, Ahmad Kamal objected on grounds that it could not be asked because it was confidential information that could not be disclosed by counsel.

This led to the simultaneous submissions by both counsels, which forced Rosbiahanin to stop the proceedings.

'Confidential information off limits'

Later at the resumption of proceedings, Rosbiahanin said she concurred with Ahmad Kamal that counsels could not pose any question on other confidential information.

She also advised Sithambaram and Ahmad Kamal against turning the court into a 'night market' and should make way when one was making a submission.

Rosbiahanin was presiding on the case against Wahid, 57, who is accused of accepting a bribe of RM60,000 from a businessman, Low Chang Hian, on July 10, 2008 as inducement to speed up approval on 4,337 applications for Bangladeshi working visas.

Wahid is alleged to have committed the offence at his house at Jalan Lembah Ledang, off Jalan Duta, at 10.15pm.

Earlier, Mohd Haris, who was responsible for assisting in the investigation, said he, Low and MACC senior assistant director Ching Chang, had gone to Wahid's house to hand over the RM60,000 marked notes to the accused.

 

- Bernama