Major Ahmad Zaidi, who has been called to enter his defence in his military trial today, has chosen to remain silent because he disagrees with the actions of the military court.

He is being tried by the military for his comments on indelible ink during the 13th general election.

He is unhappy the court decided to continue with the case ahead of a judicial review on the charge, to be heard by the High Court on Feb 5 next year.

Subsequently, the presiding judge in the case, Colonel Saadon Hasnan, postponed the hearing to Dec 19 to hear the closing arguments from the prosecutor and defence counsel.

Zaidi's lawyer Nasar Khan Mirbaz Khan had previously asserted that his defence team would not take part in today's hearing nor would they testify.

“If the court hearing still goes on before the judicial review, then we do not intend to participate in this trial. We will not testify, nor will we provide any evidence.

“It is the accused's (Zaidi) decision not to take part in this (trial),” Nasar Khan said today.

Court panel member Lt-Colonel Zainurin Mohd Dom explained that the court could not “give way” and wait until the judicial review concludes.

He explained the court had received instructions from the authorities to expedite the hearing of the case.

“We have wasted a lot of time and money for this hearing. For your information, the authorities have instructed that this hearing is continued and completed as soon as possible,” Zainurin said.

'Military panel compromised'

Speaking to reporters later, Nasar Khan explained the defence team filed a judicial review on Dec 11 after the court insisted on continuing with the case even after his defence team had asked for the case to be dropped.

Zaidi on Nov 3 wrote to the Butterworth Air Base Commander I Air Division, pleading for his case to be dismissed.

He told the commander that the case had been compromised because a panel member of the military court hearing the case against him had given his views on the case in a Malaysiakini article's comments section.

The panel member had allegedly made the posting using his Facebook account in the Malay version of the Oct 20 Malaysiakini article titled ‘Major Zaidi's guilty of having courage, court told’.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force pilot is charged with two counts of contravening paragraphs 3 and 13 of the Armed Forces Council Order No 13, 1961.

He is charged with breaching paragraph 13 by making a media statement on indelible ink without obtaining prior approval from the Defence Ministry.

Zaidi is also charged with breaching paragraph 3 by revealing official communications with the media without prior approval from his superiors.

On Oct 27, he was instructed to enter his defence on two out of seven charges of contravening military law, with the four other charges dropped.