New witness may prove airman was tortured, says lawyer

By Clara Chooi - The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Aug 5 — A High Court was informed today that a new witness has come forward in former RMAF Sergeant N. Tharmendran’s jet engine theft case, with testimonies that could prove his allegations of torture.

As such, defence counsel N. Surendran told the court he would need more time to file additional affidavits before Tharmendran’s motion seeking to quash the charges against him was heard.

“Furthermore, the prosecutors filed four affidavits on Tharmendran yesterday. Two of them were by the two majors that my client is alleging had abused him.

“We would need more time to file a further affidavit from this new witness, as well as an affidavit in reply to the prosecution,” he said.

Tharmendran, in a motion filed on July 16, is seeking for the charges against him to be thrown out on grounds that the authorities in the case had a specific intention to implicate him.

The motion was originally set for hearing today.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Asmabi Mohamad fixed August 25 to hear Tharmendran’s motion, to allow time for both sides to file their affidavits.

Outside the court room later, Surendran told reporters that the new witness, believed to be a female, would be willing to testify that torture was a “routine practice” in the RMAF.

“This person, whose identity we will not reveal for safety reasons, is an eye-witness to the physical assault arising from the same transaction involving Tharmendran and about 30 to 40 others who had initially been arrested along with him,” said Surendran.

Tharmendran had earlier claimed that he had been tortured by two majors to force a confession that he had stolen the jet engines. He had also alleged that about 30 to 40 others had been similarly tortured as he could hear their screams during his confinement at the air force base.

Surendran also explained that Tharmendran’s motion was filed in view of the fact that the authorities were “all out to convict my client”.

“The police went to the Sungai Buloh prison on June 21, while Tharmendran was in custody, and on the pretext of investigating his torture allegations, questioned him again on the theft of the jet engines.

“This has never happened before. They are using underhanded and dirty tactics to go after a person who has already been charged, to interrogate him further. This is a highly malicious act by the prosecution agencies, particularly the police and they must be answerable,” he said.

He added that the harassment and the allegations of torture by Tharmendran clearly showed an abuse of the criminal justice system.

“This is why we want the charge to be quashed. We are arguing that the charges should be quashed because of the clear abuse of the criminal process by all authorities, from the government to the police.

“We believe that the court has the right to interfere, to say that such behaviour by the authorities cannot be accepted for it is unfair to the accused,” he said.

Tharmendran and company director K. Rajandran Prasad were jointly charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court on January 6 in connection with the theft of the missing F5-E jet engines.

Tharmendran is accused of stealing the engines in December 2007 at the Subang RMAF air base.

He was also charged with conspiring in the theft with senior airman Mohamad Shukri Mohamad Yusop at the material processing shed at the Sungai Besi RMAF base.

He was arrested on September 1 last year, and if convicted faces up to 10 years’ jail and a fine.

Rajandran is accused of disposing of the engines on April 30, 2008.

The theft was a major embarrassment to the government, following reports later that the country’s first submarine — KD Tunku Abdul Rahman — could not dive in tropical waters.

The prime minister had vowed that there would be no cover-up in the high-profile case which occurred during his tenure as defence minister while the current minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, had claimed that it had been an inside job.