Lawyer: Why no disclosure of CCTV footage at court bail counter?

The lawyer for six men who spent the last weekend in prison has questioned the Federal Court chief registrar’s office for not disclosing the CCTV footage at the Kuala Lumpur court complex bail counter.

Lawyer Alvin Tan said the released footage only showed the members of the public walking around the court complex and using the ATM machine. 

This comes after the chief registrar’s office released CCTV footage to back its claim that the bail counter in the court complex did not close early on April 20. Instead, was still operating and receiving members of the public until 4pm. 

In the footage, members of the public could be seen entering and exiting the premises of its office. 

The video was taken from a camera located near ATMs in the court complex, with the office entrance visible on the upper right corner of the video in the background. 

Bail processed on a public holiday

As it was a long weekend, the six accused spent Friday to Sunday in custody. Bail was finally processed on Monday, which incidentally was a public holiday.

“If the bail counter did not close early on April 20 and there was enough proof to rebut what I have alleged, then why would the bail counter be opened on a public holiday to process the bail application?” Tan asked in a statement today.

Therefore, he called for the disclosure of CCTV video recordings at the bail counter as it “would clearly show what happened that day”.

Tan added: “The bailors for the six men who were sent to the Sungai Buloh prison can be seen in the CCTV footage (released by the chief registrar's office yesterday).

“Therefore, the initial reason that the bailors for the six accused were not present until 4pm is not accurate. I maintain that I was informed at 2.53pm that the bail counter had a cut-off time at 3pm and that they refused to process new bail applications. 

“The bailors for the six left the court around 2pm to withdraw more money at another bank and then returned before 3pm to process the bail for the six. But as we all know, the bail counter was already closed at that time and the staff refused to process any new bail applications.”

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