Round one: the truth surfaces

Under cross-examination, Kevin admitted that there was bad blood between Ramli and the IGP. The IGP had blocked Ramli’s Pingat Polis award on grounds that he is under investigation, thus unqualified to be the Deputy IGP -- and therefore also not suitable to succeed as IGP.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Rosli Dahlan's trial kicked off in the Criminal Sessions Court 10 in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur, with the cross-examination of the Prosecution’s first witness, MACC officer Azmi Ismail, by Dato' Kumaraendran.

Azmi testified that Rosli was served a notice to declare his assets although he was not the subject of any investigation. The subject of the investigation was the ex-CCID Director, Ramli Yusuff.

Azmi further testified that Ramli was under investigation because of a report (Report Number 098/2007), which he (Azmi) made against him (Ramli). The basis of the report was information he (Azmi) received through another report that Ramli was involved in corruption.

Azmi admitted that he has no knowledge whatsoever whether Ramli had committed any crime. Nevertheless, he still made the report against Ramli and launched the investigation under instructions from higher up resulting from another report (Report Number O75/2007) made by another officer, Saiful Ezral.

In fact, Saiful's report (the first report) made no mention of Ramli’s name. Azmi, however, mentioned Ramli in his report (the second report) even though his report was based on another report that made no mention of Ramli.

In Ramli’s trial that was held simultaneously in the Criminal Sessions Court 2, Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur, Dato' Shafie Abdullah, Ramli’s lawyer, cross-examined DPP Kevin Morais who admitted that Report Number 075/2007 lodged by Saiful Ezral was based on a complaint made by an underworld operator named Moo Sai Chin.

It was further revealed that:

1) On 9 September 2006, Musa Hassan became the IGP.

2) On 9 October 2007, Moo was detained under the Emergency Ordinance.

3) On 9 December 2007, Moo's detention under the Emergency Ordinance was converted to Restricted Residence under RR0 and he was restricted to Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, for one year until December 2007.

4) On 23 January 2007, Moo was released.

Apparently, to secure his release, Moo had cut a deal with the IGP to implicate Ramli in this fabricated charge.

5) On 7 March 2007, the police brought Moo to the ACA office where he gave a statement implicating Ramli. Moo's statement said that he paid several police officers a bribe to cover up two murder cases.

6) Kevin admitted that Moo's statement was not sufficient to implicate Ramli because the murders occurred in 2002 whereas since November 2001 Ramli was already posted to Sabah as the Police Commissioner.

7) Kevin further admitted that Moo's statement implicating Ramli only related to protection money allegedly given in 1999. However, Moo’s allegation was made eight years later on 7 March 2007 -- that means only after the IGP had released him from Restricted Residence on 23 January 2007.

This contradicts the whole thing because the notice to Ramli was to declare his assets from 2000-2007 and not for the alleged corruption in 1999.

Kevin actually issued the notice on 17 July 2007. Just a few days later, on 27 July 2007, the New Straits Times ran a ‘leaked’ story about a senior police officer being investigated for not declaring RM27 million in assets. Everything seems to point to Kevin as the source of this leaked story.

Under cross-examination, Kevin admitted that there was bad blood between Ramli and the IGP. The IGP had blocked Ramli’s Pingat Polis award on grounds that he is under investigation, thus unqualified to be the Deputy IGP -- and therefore also not suitable to succeed as IGP. Kevin’s testimony seems to point to the real issue -- to block Ramli from becoming the next IGP.

Let us see what more gets revealed as the trial continues later today. Thus far, however, what Malaysia Today has said is beginning to unfold. Now do you know why the IGP is looking for me all over the world? He is worried that Malaysia Today will reveal what a slime-ball and scum-bag he really is.