The late deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais did not handle the 1MDB case, said his youngest brother Richard Morais at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today.
Richard, 50, said this when cross-examined by defence counsel N Sivananthan, who is representing doctor and army pathologist, Colonel Dr R Kunaseegaran regarding Kevin Morais’s involvement in the 1MDB case.
“No... he didn’t handle the 1MDB case. I found out about the case from my investigation in newspapers,” he testified in the first day of the trial of Kunaseegaran before judge Azman Abdullah.
When asked by Sivananthan whether his brother was the DPP who had prosecuted many people including his client at the Shah Alam Sessions Court, Richard replied he heard from the police that an argument happened between Kevin Morais and the accused (Kunaseegaran) two days prior to the missing of his brother.
Sivananthan: Were you aware that police went to court and obtained all CCTVs but could not find any incident between my client and your brother?
Richard: No, I don’t remember
Sivanantahan: Are you assuming the guilt of my client because he is sitting in the dock?
Richard: Yes
Questioned about the second post-morterm on Kevin Morais’s body, Richard said: “Charles (second brother) wanted to do a second post-mortem, I agreed. But he was misleading and dragging, made me do it myself.”
“He was misleading everybody and I just went by it. I was happy with the government,” said Richard, who was the first prosecution witness.
According to him, he trusted the result of the first post-mortem and trusted the government in handling the case since the first day of the investigation.
He also said that he did not know about Kevin Morais’s involvement in the Criminal Breach Trust case of former Sime Darby chief executive officer Ahmad Zubir Mursyid when asked by another defence counsel, M Manoharan.
‘Charles not satisfied with first post-mortem results’
Earlier, when replying to a question from DPP Abdul Razak Musa during examination-in-chief, Richard said he claimed Kevin Morais’s remains on Nov 23, 2015, two months after the first post-mortem.
Asked by Abdul Razak why it took him that long to claim the remains of his eldest brother, Richard said his elder brother Charles was not satisfied with the results of the first post-mortem and wanted a second one done.
However, he said the second post-mortem was still not done after 17 days the results of the first were released.
When asked by Abdul Razak on the condition of Kevin Morais’s body, Richard, who is the managing director of a music company, said it was badly decomposed when he first saw it, which was 12 days after his missing.
He said the first time he saw the body was at the mortuary of the Kuala Kumpur Hospital on Sept 16, 2015 and it was difficult to identify because it was covered in cement.
Abdul Razak: Can you explain the condition of Kevin Morais’s body then?
Richard: You ask Dr Kuna (Kunaseegaran), he should know better.
This prompted Sivananthan to interject, saying that the witness should not make such remark to the accused.
Judge Azman said: “This is Richard’s first case, the victim is his brother, of course he will be emotional.”
“My brother’s body was decomposed beyond recognition, what do you expect with cement on his face after 12 days,” Richard added.
After that, he said, he was to undergo DNA testing on Sept 18, 2015 before the DNA result confirmed a match with the DNA of Kevin Morais two days later.
“After it was confirmed the victim was my brother, I made a booking at Nirvana (Memorial Centre) for Christian funeral rites,” he said, adding that the last time he was Kevin was about two months before he went missing.
Meanwhile, to a question from Sivananthan, Richard informed that he came to know about Kevin being missing on Sept 5, 2015 through his cousin Priya (only one name given).
He said Priya told him that Kevin Morais had not returned to his apartment in Menara Duta here since Sept 4, 2015 after he left his house at 7.45am on that day.
“Priya got the information from Kevin Morais’s housemate Darvin, 24, (only one name available) who contacted her after he (Darvin) could not reach Kevin on the day of the incident,” he said.
Richard said on receiving the information, he immediately lodged a police report at 5.04pm the same day at the Sentul police station.
On Jan 27, six men - G Gunasekaran, 48, R Dinishwaran, 24, AK Thinesh Kumar, 23, M Vishwanath, 26, S Nimalan, 23, and S Ravi Chandaran, 45, pleaded not guilty to murdering Kevin Morais betweeb 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015, somewhere between Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul and No 1 Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya.
All were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code and face the mandatory death sentence, if convicted.
Kunaseegaran, 53, who is the first accused in the trial, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring with the six men in the killing of Kevin Morais at the same place, date and time under Section 109 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 302 of the same code.
Gunasekaran, Vishwanath, Nimalan and Ravi Chandaran were represented by lawyer V Rajehgopal while Dinishwaran and Thinesh Kumar by lawyer M Manoharan.
- Bernama
