The VAT69 commandos carrying out a close reconnaisance (recce) operation to cordon off Kampung Tanduo on March 1 last year when a shoot-out occurred could not completely guard the whole area, the High Court heard in Kota Kinabalu today.

Superintendent Mancha Anak Laga, the leader of one of five teams carrying out the operation, said each team was positioned quite far from each other.

“The teams could not fully guard the area shoulder-to-shoulder because the area was quite vast.

“It (the area) was also swampy, bushy and forested,” he told the High Court, which convened at the Sabah Prisons Department in Kota Kinabalu.

He said this when cross-examined by counsel Rowiena Rasad at the trial of 30 people charged with various offences related to terrorism activities in Sabah last year.

Mancha also disagreed with Rowiena that as an experienced VAT69 commando, having served 28 years with the unit, he should have been able to fully guard his area of responsibility.

He explained that the effectiveness of the operation at each sector or area of responsibilty depended on the terrain and evaluation of the area by the personnel.

Twenty-two of the 30 individuals jointly being tried, including two Malaysian men, are charged with waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, an offence which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment, and being members of a terrorist group, which is punishable with life imprisonment and a fine, if convicted.

Of the 22, one faces two additional charges of recruiting members of a terrorist group and harbouring persons knowing that they were members of a terrorist group.  

Of the remaining eight, five are accused of being members of a terrorist group; one of them, the sole woman among the 30 and a Malaysian citizen, is charged with harbouring persons knowing they were members of a terrorist group, while two are charged with attempting to harbour persons knowing they were members of a terrorist group.

The rest are Philippine nationals. They are all accused of committing the respective offences between Feb 12 and April 10, last year.

The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung continues tomorrow.

All the suspects were caught after the terrorist intrusion in Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu in February last year.

The intrusion cost the lives of eight policemen and two soldiers.

- Bernama