A police corporal has testified that the Pakatan Rakyat-organised ‘Black 505' rally on June 22 last year was a “peaceful” gathering.

Kahar Shariff, who is with the Jasin police station in Malacca, had submitted two hours of video footage of the rally in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today.

PKR’s Rafizi Ramli ( seated right in picture ) and the DAP’s Anthony Loke ( on the left ) have been charged with violating the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 in organising the rally at Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur, without police approval.

PKR employee Muhammad Adib Ishar and PAS assemblyperson Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi face similar charges.

"Did you see topsy-turvy happenings at the rally?" asked Rafizi's lawyer Eric Paulsen during cross-examination.

"No," Kahar told judge Mat Ghani Abdullah.

Asked if he agreed that the assembly was peaceful, Kahar replied, “Yes”.

None of accused seen on the stage

He said he made the recording between 2.30pm and 4.30pm, when opposition politicians had gone up on a makeshift stage speak on alleged irregularities during the 13th general election held last May.

Kahar said he had not seen any of the accused on the stage or at the event.

In the video, Pakatan leaders are heard thanking the police for their presence and several times the people were asked to sit down and remain calm.

The defence lawyers argued that no police went up on stage or tried to stop the event at a regular public gathering space. No one was injured and no tear gas was deployed.

Kahar agreed on these points.

However, when asked to confirm that the video showed event hosts thanking the police repeatedly, Kahar said he didn’t wish to answer.

“I don’t want to answer. Even if I don’t agree, I can’t decide,” he said.

Only the DVD-copy of Kahar’s video was played in court and this was interrupted twice due to technical issues.

Orignal recording deleted

Later, when asked by defence lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, Kahar said the original source recording has been “deleted”.

Pressed on why he could have neglected his responsibility to safeguard important ‘police evidence’, Kahar said he deleted the recording from its memory card but could not remember exactly when he did it.

The DVD copy was submitted by the police department back to him for safekeeping on June 24, he said.

Kahar is the sixth prosecution witness in the trial, which is to go on until Friday.

If found guilty, the two MPS may be fined up to RM10,000, which would cause them to lose their parliamentary  seats.

Later in the afternoon, the prosecution team led by Nurulhuda Aini Mohmamad Nor called assistant police superintendant (ASP) Ahmad Jais Ujang from Sentul division, who was the ground commander at Padang Merbok on that day.
 
When questioned by the prosecution, Ahmad Jais identified three speakers from the video as Chua Jui Meng, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul and Badrul Hisham Shaharin. 
 
He testified that the crowd dispersed peacefully at 5.45pm after hearing Anwar Ibrahim, the final speaker, and the police were able to complete their duties by 8pm.
 
There were up to 70 police personnel on duty at Padang Merbok and perhaps more controlling traffic elsewhere, he said. 

No riot police

 
However, he agreed with defence lawyer Paulsen that the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and light strike force were not called in as they didn't anticipate a riot.
 
"Is it fair to say that even though it is a big gathering, it ended peacefully?" Paulsen asked.
 
"And based on the numbers (of participants) alone, the (available) police can handle it?"

 

Ahmad said he agreed on both counts and nodded his head. He had earlier said there crowd had swelled to about 30,000 people by late evening.
 
Ahmad also said he wasn't sure who exactly was the rally's organszer as some 20 people spoke on the stage but noted that none of the accused in court today were among them.
 
Defense lawyers also questioned why the the police did not investigate the owner of the lorry that was used as the stage, despite having identified the person.