Thesun 2009-02-05 Page06 Sirul I Was Made Out To Be The Black Sheep

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THE Commercial Vepurely an interachicle Licensing Board tion session and we (CVLB) and Federation did not make any by Kong See Hoh of Schoolbus Operaconcrete decision. [email protected] tors Associations are “We all agreed telling contrasting that as it was a stories on the outcome of their recent closed-door meeting we would not divulge meeting to discuss the operators’ request what transpired at the meeting to outsidfor a 30% surcharge on fares. ers. How come he (Chee) publicised it?” Following a report quoting federation He stressed it is not within the purview president Chee Ah Tey as saying the CVLB of the board to decide whether members has agreed in principle to the surcharge, of the federation can raise their fares, and the board came out with a denial and the authority rests with the Entrepreneur ticked off Chee for breaking a promise not and Cooperative Development Minister. to talk to the press on what transpired at “The government will consider prothe meeting. posals put forward by public transport Last week, Chee told a Chinese daily operators, but there has not been any the CVLB has agreed in principle to allow decision yet. I hope operators would give operators to impose a 30% fare surcharge the government ample time to consider and was only awaiting the green light from their requests,” he said. the cabinet to implement it. Asked when the government would However, when contacted by Sin Chew make a decision, Markiman said: “The Daily on Tuesday, CVLB director-general government has not set a time frame; the Datuk Markiman Kobiran said at the Jan operators have to be patient.” 20 meeting, which was also Meanwhile, Chee insisted attended by Entrepreneur that the CVLB chief has and Cooperative Developverbally agreed to the ment Minister Datuk schoolbus operaNoh Omar and other tors’ request. public transport op“Yes, I was erators, no consensus reminded not to was reached with the disclose details of federation on fares. our discussion but “We had a closedin order to assuage door meeting with discontent among public transport operaoperators who had tors to understand the threatened to stage a problems they face and boycott, I had no choice to discuss suitable solubut to make it (what the tions. federation achieved at the “However, it was meeting) public.”

Press Digest

Sirul: I was made out to be the ‘black sheep’ by S. Tamarai Chelvi / THESUN N MOHDNOR KAMARIDUA

CVLB: No decision yet on 30% surcharge

Sirul (front), and Azilah being brought to the Shah Alam High Court for the trial yesterday.

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SHAH ALAM: Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar broke down yesterday when he said he was made out to be a “black sheep” to be sacrificed to protect the plans and intentions of others who are not present in court to face the consequences of their act. Sirul, who was wiping his tears while reading his 15-page statement from the dock, said he never knew the victim, Altantuya Shaariibuu, or Abdul Razak Baginda Abdullah and never had any dealings with either of them, personally or otherwise. Sirul said that throughout the proceedings, he had observed that a few key prosecution witnesses, especially from the federal serious crime division (D9), did not tell the truth and constantly changed their stories when crossexamined. He begged the court to take this into consideration. “I don’t have any reason to cause hurt, what more to take the life of the victim so cruelly. I beg the court not to punish me and to complete their plans against me,” he said. Clad in a black suit and black shirt, Sirul paused several times to compose himself while reading from his statement. After he finished reading, he sat down on the bench in the dock and wiped his tears. Several members of public were also seen wiping away tears. Sirul was also emotional when he related how he was ordered by ACP Mastor Mohd Ariff to come back to Malaysia, while he was on duty as the prime minister’s personal bodyguard at a hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan on Nov 5, 2006. “Mastor ordered me to come back to Malaysia on the grounds that my former wife ... lodged a police report against me and I needed to go back to settle the problem, “ said Sirul, his voice breaking. Earlier, in his defence, Sirul said Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri told him that DSP Musa Safri told him (Azilah) that Musa had a friend

Altantuya

ACCUSED

Victim Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28

• Chief Insp Azilah • Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar, 37 Hadri, 32

who was facing “woman problem”, while they were on their way to Musa’s friend’s house in Bukit Damansara. He said Azilah also said “DSP Musa’s friend” is of high position, a businessman and wealthy. However, he said, Azilah did not reveal the identity of “DSP Musa’s friend” (Razak). He said Azilah told him a Chinese woman and a Chinese man, believed to be her brother, had caused a disturbance and chaos in front of the man’s house and that the woman was a former girlfriend of the man, whom he referred to as “DSP Musa’s friend”. Sirul said according to Azilah, he had promised DSP Musa that he would help his “friend” by patrolling around the bungalow area from time to time during after-duty hours to prevent the woman and man from causing chaos in front of the house. He said at that stage, Azilah asked him whether he could help to patrol if Azilah had official duty outside Kuala Lumpur and if Sirul did not have any official duty. He said his agreement to help Azilah was an agreement to give service to his superior officer. Sirul said on Oct 19, 2006, he parked his jeep at a junction before walking towards a house in Bukit Damansara. He said there was a red Wira Aeroback parked in front of the house. He said he got into the car which was driven by Azilah. He said a Malay woman and the Chinese woman were seated in the back of the car. He said at the junction, he got down and went back to his jeep. He said Azilah, whose car was behind his jeep, called him on his handphone and told him to stop. He said Azilah alighted, approached him and told him that he was advising the woman and based on her behaviour and response, she appeared to be listening to his advice. He said Azilah asked him (Sirul) where Sirul wanted to go and Sirul told him that as the situation was under control and that he no longer had a role, he wanted to go home, to which Azilah said: “Ok”. The defence closed its case yesterday. Submission by both defence lawyers will be heard on Feb 16 before judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin.

Police: No discrepancies in Balkis expenditure by Charles Ramendran [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: A probe into a police report lodged against the Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organisation (Balkis) in May last year over the alleged misuse of funds in its coffers on sports attire and other clothing for participants of an event found no discrepancies in the expenditure, according to police. Selangor PKR Youth chief Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin said yesterday police had sent a written reply on their findings last month to the complainant Mohd Ali Hanapiah Ali Murtada, who is the wing’s secretary. Mohd Ali had lodged the report at the Shah Alam police station on May 25 last year urging police to probe a newspaper report that Balkis had spent RM279,000 on sports attire and batik clothing for its members and their husbands at an annual event for the wives of assemblymen in 2007. Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had also questioned the astronomical expendi-

ture of Balkis at a state assembly sitting. He said the letter, which was from a senior investigating officer from the federal police commercial crime department’s (CCID) corporate crimes division, stated that after a thorough probe into the report, police found no discrepancies or misappropriation in the purchase of the items. The assistant superintendent of police who sent the letter on behalf of his boss CCID director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun had also said police will no longer pursue the case as investigations showed that Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd had paid for the merchandise and Balkis had only taken delivery of the items. Khairul, however, expressed unhappiness with the findings of the police. “This is a cover up and I can say the police have not carried out a comprehensive probe to come to this outcome,” he said. He said he has yet to receive a reply from the police on another report lodged by his deputy, Hamsah Djabir, the same day against the previous state government for spending RM27 million of their allocation within two months.