Ahmad Zaharil Muhaiyar, the lead defence counsel for four of the five policemen accused of causing bodily harm to businessman Chia Buang Hing, began casting doubts today about the framemaker and his testimony.

Cross-examining Chia after the prosecution finished questioning him, Zaharil focused on details of the incident at a roadblock in Damansara on Dec 18 last year, where Chia said he was beaten after being stopped by police .

The lawyer focused on the Kelantan Royal Family VVIP card which featured prominently in the police report lodged by Chia.

Deputy public prosecutor Amirah Mohd Yusof initially objected to this line of questioning, dismissing it as "not relevant" to the proceedings and the charge, to which magistrate Nik Mohd Fadhli Nik Azlan asked Zaharil to explain.

"This card was (said to have) caused the second defendant (Norzali Roslee) to hit Chia. It is very relevant," the lawyer said, after which Nik Fadhli dismissed Amirah's objection and allowed Zaharil to proceed.

The defence counsel then asked Chia about the significance of the card, whether he was a ‘datuk' or a state official, and whether the Kelantan palace would know of him since it issued the document to him.

A mark of appreciation for donation

Chia said the card was just a mark of appreciation to him for a sum of money he donated to charity in the east coast state and that he would not know if the palace knew of him.

Zaharil also questioned Chia extensively about the expired road tax of his wife's car that he was driving when stopped at the roadblock and whether there were witnesses to his beating there and at the police station.

NONE Chia maintained that he was not aware the road tax had expired until informed by the cops after he was stopped, but that there were witnesses to his beating at the roadblock and also at the police station.

Zaharil also asked Chia what he ate and drank during the family dinner prior to being stopped at the roadblock.

However, the magistrate accepted an objection from one of Chia's lawyers holding a watching brief, who asked the relevance of the question.

Zaharil also made much about Chua's allegations that all four policemen crammed into the small toilet cubicle where he said he was punched and kicked after being taken to a nearby police station.

"Did they hit you all at once, the whole bunch of them? Or What? While the second defendant was hitting you, the rest were lining up outside to await their turn to hit you?" asked Zaharil.

To this Chia said they hit him one at a time. One would stand guard outside as another would enter the toilet to beat him, alternating among them.

Norzali, Mohd Azwan Hassan, Mohd Saifullah Osman and Alizul Hafiz Mohd Ghafar are jointly charged, under Section 323 of the Penal Code, with voluntarily causing hurt to the businessman.

Another policeman, Mohadi Adam, is charged under Section 166 of the Penal Code for disobeying the law in order to cause harm to Chia.

Request for another interpreter accepted

Zaharil is representing all the accused except for Norzali, who is being represented by R Vijayan.

Norzali also faces two more charges under Section 211 of the Penal Code for lodging a false police report accusing Chia of being in possession of a parang and drugs.

Vijayan is yet to cross-examine Chia.

At 4.20pm, the trial was postponed after lawyers holding a watching brief for Chia requested that a more senior court interpreter be brought in to translate as they deemed the person doing so was not able to translate accurately what Chia was saying.

This followed several occasions when the interpreter missed out several important words in her translation and failed to understand Chia properly, forcing one of the lawyers holding the watching brief to assist in translating.

The magistrate agreed and fixed hearing to continue on June 23, 29 and 30.

Let Chia's case spark police reform