A former inmate at an immigration detention camp today related the journey he took to enter Malaysia eight years ago in his testimony for the defence in the Irene Fernandez 'false news' trial.

In a half-day trial, Bangladesh national Mohd Shahabuddin narrated the hardship he faced during the journey to Malaysia and the humiliating treatment he received after being caught by local authorities.

He told the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court that he first came to Malaysia in 1995 after having paid 'agents' in Dhaka to bring him into the country.

"To come to Malaysia, I sold my land, borrowed from my father-in-law's family and my brother-in-law. I also sold my cow. In total, I gave the agent BDT60,000 (RM3,897) to come to Malaysia," he said via a court interpreter.

Shahabuddin was the first witness to testify in the trial since it resumed on Tuesday after a 20-month hiatus. Up till May 2001, when the case was last heard, the prosecution had called a total of 35 witnesses while 20 witnesses had testified for the defence.

Jungle shelter

Questioned about the details of his journey, Shahabuddin, 37, told the court that he first flew into Bangkok, Thailand, on a passport bearing a different name, with an agent and seven other persons.

"At Dhaka airport, I was stopped by the customs department. I gave US$100 (RM380) and the customs cleared us. We boarded the aircraft (at Dhaka airport).

"When we got (arrived) in Bangkok, we were stopped...After examining our passports, Thai police asked US$400 from us but we gave US$200...Seven of us waited at the airport for (another) agent," he said.

Shahabuddin said he was later put on a train to Hat Yai, a southern Thai town, where he was transported in a motorised trishaw (tuk tuk) to a spartan jungle shelter close to the Malaysian-Thai border.

"We stayed in the jungle for 27 or 28 days. There were 210 to 215 people. There were other people there as well from India, Pakistan, Burma and some other nationalities that I do not know," he responded to a question from defence counsel M Puravalen.

According to the witness, some at the shelter stayed under an open palm-roofed shed while others slept "under trees wrapped in bed sheets".

Coconut meals

To enter Malaysia, he told the court that smaller groups of some 15 persons were hidden in taxis which brought them into Kelantan.

Asked if he passed a checkpoint along the way, Shahabuddin said, "That we cannot tell because we were covered by carton boxes."

The Bangladeshi national said he trudged through the jungle with fourteen others for seven nights before arriving in Terengganu.

"We had no food. We ate coconut along the way. We did not carry any water (and) drank coconut water. We walked at night only...and saw snakes and insects but they didn't harm us. There was a problem with mosquitoes though," he recalled.

The group's journey ended on the eighth day when they were arrested by the police.

Police "laughed"

"After the arrest, we were taken in a car to a police station...The next morning they took us to a lock-up in another police station (in Besut)."

Shahabuddin said he was then kept in the lock-up for another eight days before being transferred to the Tanah Merah detention camp in Kelantan.

"I was photographed with a number and finger-printed...(I was then) taken into a room. There were policemen and other Bangladeshis," he said estimating the number of policemen there at five or six and immigrants between 20 to 25.

"The police asked me to undress myself...They took away my clothes and checked them...(The police) were looking at me from two to three feet away and they were laughing," he said, adding that he thought the police laughed at him because he was naked.

Asked how he felt when the incident took place, Shahabuddin said, "I felt very bad...I thought and heard that this is a Muslim country. This type of torture made me feel very bad."

The witness then identified from a photo exhibit that he was taken to "Block B" of the camp.

The witness will continue his testimony next Tuesday.

Labour activist Fernandez was charged under Section 8A(2) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 for "maliciously publishing false news" after she released a memorandum at a press conference in August 1995 about alleged torture and deaths in the camps for illegal immigrants.

If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to RM20,000. She is currently on bail.