A lawyer today questioned the high handed action by the police and the Attorney General's Chambers in wanting to arrest and charge her client, who was giving testimony over an alleged affair an actress had with an Umno minister.
 
Latheefa Koya, who represents the actress' former driver Noor Azman Azemi ( right ), said her client had voluntarily gone to the Bukit Indah police station yesterday.
 
This was after the police tried to arrest him yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur High Court where he was testifying in his suit against his former employer and actress Zahida Mohamed Rafique. 
 
Latheefa said that it was there that Noor Azman was informed by the police that he would be charged with "god knows what" at the earliest on Thursday. 
 
"Noor Azman had been remanded for four days by the police two years ago following Zahida's claim that he stole RM200,000.
 
"However, the police and prosecution did not take action then but chose to do it yesterday and wanted to charge him today just as he was testifying and this is intimidation of a witness to protect a minister," she said outside court after the proceedings.
 
Earlier today, Noor Azman, who is also an Umno Youth division leader, continued to give his testimony.

 

Zahida also took the witness stand wearing a black jubah and tudung.
 
Later, outside court, the actress was seen covering her face with a veil along with her siblings, who were dressed in similar fashion.
 
Yesterday, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Hue Siew Kheng had ordered the police not to arrest Noor Azman.
 
Justice Hue had said that the trial should not be disrupted and the driver should not be disturbed until he has finished testifying. 
 
Affair alleged

The driver had testified under oath that Zahida had an alleged affair with Rural Development Minister Shafie Apdal, who is also Umno vice-president.

 
However in 2012, Shafie had denied that he had an affair with Zahida. 
 
Zahida had then told the media in Feb 2012, that Noor Azman stole the RM200,000 from her.

The former driver, in denying the claim, filed the suit against Zahida last year.

 

Noor Azman, when cross-examined by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah ( right ) for the actress, denied the assertion by the senior lawyer that the 39-year-old actress knew and met the minister at various hotels.

Yesterday, the witness told the court he had at times brought Shafie and Zahida together to the Ritz Carlton and Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Noor Azman said they met each other at least once a week.

 

Noor Azman, who had worked for Zahida for three years, further denied he stole RM200,000 as alleged by Zahida, and reported by several media.

He maintained that on that day when the money was reportedly lost, he had only been asked by Zahida to deposit a RM120,000 cheque.

 

The witness also further rejected Shafee's contention that he had used the stolen money to pay off his motorcycle loan which was only RM1,000.

 

Noor Azman further disagreed with Shafee's that the reason he created his testimony in court yesterday and today was to smear BN politicians.

 

In re-examination by Latheefa, Noor Azman explained that Shafie ( right ) was close to Zahida.The minister, would at times contact him personally to ask of her whereabouts.

 

The former driver told the court yesterday that his working relationship with the actress soured after he had informed the minister that Zahida was seeing someone else.

 

He told the court that the minister would at times give her huge sums of money as well as presents.

 

When Latheefa repeated Shafee's question whether it was true he had tried to smear BN politicians, Noor Azman explained that he would not do so as he himself is an Umno member since 1996 and is presently an Umno division leader.

 

“Datuk Seri promised to look after me and my political career. However, as a result of myself being slandered by Zahida in the media, my career in politics is also affected,” he said.

 

Zahida: No relationship

 

Zahida in his testimony said while she knew Shafie as a minister, she denied having any relationship with the Umno vice-president.

 

The actress explained to questions from Shafee that she received RM243,000 cash from a company Puncak Utas Sdn Bhd on Feb 28, 2012, as commission for a task done and that she had counted the money with her father and Noor Azman.

 

“I asked Noor Azman to deposit the money for me along with the RM120,000 cheque the next day,” she said.

 

However, during cross-examination by lawyer N Surendran for Noor Azman, Zahida ( left ) sang a different tune when she told the court that she had given a RM20,000 loan to Puncak Utas owner Shaheful Ardan Adenan and that the RM243,000 was a return on her investment.

 

“He asked me for some money and I loaned out RM20,000 for investment. Shaheful would ask me whether I wanted the money back and I asked him to roll the money. As a result I got the return,” she said.

She added she kept RM43,000 in the house, and asked Noor Azman to deposit the balance the next day.

 

However the actress could not give a satisfactory answer when asked by Surendran as to why she had signed an invoice from Puncak Utas when she was the one receiving the money.

 

“I only signed the documents given by the Puncak Utas representative identified as Syed Hazrat." she replied.

 

She explained that when she lodged a report of the missing RM200,000, there was media at the police station, and she had related to them as to what had transpired.

 

Zahida also said she filed a counter-claim against Noor Azman on Sept 2014 with hopes of recovering the missing RM200,000 from her former driver.

 

When asked by Surendran why she had waited for over two years' after the alleged loss to take action, the actress replied that she had already lodged a police report.

She had been hoping that police would do their job and she had been waiting all these years for the result of their action.

 

The hearing continues on Nov 11 before Justice Hue.