A retired Royal Malaysian Air Force lieutenant-colonel cried for several minutes when reminiscing on what his son said after he was charged with involvement in a militant group in Beirut, Lebanon, three years ago.

Mohd Ariff Abdullah, 65, was testifying in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today at the trial of Muhammad Hilmi Hasim and former Internal Security Act detainee Yazid Sufaat for acts of terrorism.

They are held under Sosma and are charged with being members of Tanzim Al Qaeda Malaysia, which has the intention to recruit people to attack civilians in Syria.

DPP Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria had asked Ariff what his son, Razif told him when they met at the Roumieh Prison in Beirut three years ago.

Needing a short moment to compose himself on the witness stand, Ariff said Razif told him “Pa, we did not do anything wrong.”

Yesterday, another witness, Sabrina Beegum Mohd Sahafi, testified that Razif bought two tickets from her to catch a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept 29, 2012, to depart on Oct 3.

Razif, 34, and Muhamad Razin Sharhan Mustafa Kamal, now 25, had paid RM7,040 for two return tickets to Istanbul.

Ariff testified that after he realised that his son Razif was missing from home, he checked his son's room and found the receipt for the air tickets issued by Sabrina.

He explained during the examination-in-chief by Hanafiah that he asked Sabrina where the flight was headed to and it was only then that he knew his son had left for Istanbul several days earlier.

Ariff said on Oct 26, he received a call from a Wisma Putra staff informing him that his son and Razin had been arrested in Lebanon for being members of an armed organised group, which the official was afraid to name.

“I then contacted Malaysia's former ambassador to Lebanon, Ilango Karuppannan, who urged me to go to Lebanon to appoint a lawyer for my son. I booked a flight on Oct 27 and arrived there the next day.

“On Oct 29, we went to court, where the judge allowed me to meet my son for five minutes. It was during this moment that Razif told me `Pa, we did not do anything wrong',” he said.

'My son studied in Yemen'

Ariff testified that Razif did not go to university after finishing his SPM.

“However, he went to Sanaa in Yemen in 2010, to study Arabic. He was there for about a year-and-a-half. I accompanied him there when he went to study.

“He was asked to leave the country after he and a couple of Malaysian students were caught leaving Sanaa without authorisation. As a result of this, he and the several students were told to return back to Malaysia,” Ariff said.

After this, he said, his son tried to go back to Yemen but on arriving at the airport, he was told to go back home.

Ariff also said that Razif had informed his mother of his trip before leaving for Lebanon.

He said he and his wife were divorced in 1993, and they have four children, including Razif who stayed with him.

Ariff said till today Lebanon's case against his son and Razin has yet to begin.
 
He has since appointed another lawyer to replace the first one appointed in 2012.
 
"The lawyers informed me that the file against them is empty," the witness said.