A Bukit Aman Special Branch officer swam a distance of between 100 and 150 metres away from a skirmish area at the water village of Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul in Semporna on March 2, last year, the High Court in Kota Kinabalu was told today.

Sergeant-Major Mohd Zamari Suhot said after he rolled off a plank walk and fell into the sea to evade bullets whizzing past him during the 7.30pm incident, he swam to a surau.

There, he saw a policeman from the Semporna Narcotics Division, who helped him out of the water.

As soon as he was out of the water, the witness said he and the narcotics police personnel stood guard near the junction of Bridge 5 of the village that led to a house where a suspect in the Lahad Datu intrusion, known as ‘Imam Tua’, was believed to be in hiding.

“We stood guard at the junction of Bridge 5 and at that time, two police personnel, one from the General Operations Force (GOF) and the other from the Semporna Criminal Investigation Division (CID), came and stood guard at the junction,” he said.

Seeing that Mohd Zamari was not carrying any weapon, the Semporna CID personnel gave him an M-16 rifle, while he (Semporna CID personnel) was armed with a pistol.

Asked by deputy public prosecutor Abdul Wahab Mohamed how long he and the three police personnel stood guard at the junction of Bridge 5, Mohd Zamari said about four to five hours.

Abdul Wahab: Can you tell the court what happened in that four to five hours?

Mohd Zamari: I asked the three police personnel to call any security team for assistance.

Abdul Wahab: Did any of the police personnel successfully make a call to anyone?

Mohd Zamari: The police personnel from the Semporna CID, by the name of Nizam, managed to contact his friends who, at that time, were believed to be trapped in one of the houses near the targeted house.

Mohd Zamari said while they stood guard, the police personnel known as Nizam received a telephone call from a security team telling him to look for a white cloth to tie around their arms to identify them as the police.

“At the same time, I was told by the police personnel with me, that there were teams trapped and the number of personnel and their locations were unknown.

“They also told me that Superintendent Ibrahim Lebar was dead, ASP Mohamad Hasnal Jamil was seriously injured and Sergeant Baharin Hamid’s location was unknown,” he said, adding that the technical team of ASP Azra Nursaffree Ramli and three others were safe but their location was unknown.

Five hours standing guard at bridge

After five hours standing guard, Mohd Zamari said the team which stood guard at the basketball court at the entrance of Bridge 5 - where they all had gathered before launching the raid on Imam Tua - said it was safe for them to leave the village.

He said he was then instructed to go to the Semporna district police headquarters to report on the situation in the village.

During cross-examination, Mohd Zamari said he did not carry out a physical investigation on Imam Tua and was never told of the suspect’s real name.

“Are you aware that ‘Imam Tua’ was shot dead at Kampung Simunul, Semporna,?” asked counsel N Sivananthan to which Mohd Zamari said he was unsure.

Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are being tried in the case, in which some are facing multiple charges of being members of a terrorist group or waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.

They allegedly committed the offences between Feb 12 and April 10 last year.

The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department continues tomorrow.

- Bernama