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Saturday, 23 October 2010

Witnesses in the dark over machete in car

The New Straits Times
By Rita Jong

SHAH ALAM: The mystery surrounding the machete found in the car allegedly driven by Aminulrasyid Amzah the night it crashed following a high-speed chase remains unanswered.

According to witnesses who testified at the Sessions Court yesterday, they had never seen the rusty machete before, let alone place it in the car.

The machete was found under the front passenger seat of a white Proton Iswara which was said to have been driven by the teenager.

His sister, Tuty Shahninza Amzah, 36, said she had been using the car since 2007 until the incident and had not put the machete in the car.

The car belonged to her father-in-law.

When deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar showed her the machete, she said: "This is not mine. I do not know who it belongs to."

Tuty was testifying at the trial of Corporal Jenain Subi, 48, who is charged with causing the death of Aminulrasyid, 14, in Jalan Tarian 11/2, Section 11 here, between 1.10am and 2am on April 26.

She said Aminulrasyid, her youngest brother of eight siblings, a Form Three student, had never driven a car before and did not have a driving licence.

The courtroom fell silent when Dusuki showed her two post-mortem photographs of her brother to identify.

Tuty looked at the photographs for a good 10 seconds before replying in the affirmative and was seen wiping tears from her eyes.

Dusuki: Do you know what happened to Aminulrasyid?

Tuty: He was shot dead.

Tuty, who lives in Taman Sri Andalas in Klang, said she went to her mother's house in Jalan Mak Yong 11/2G here on April 25 late evening to stay overnight with her three children.

"I parked my car at the porch, left the car keys in the living room and saw my brother doing his homework at the dining table," she said.

"Aminul then wanted me to make fried rice and we later ate together with my children and mother."

After dinner, she went upstairs to sleep while he continued doing his homework.

At 3am, Tuty said she was woken up by a telephone call from her husband, who was in Klang, asking her the whereabouts of her car as he had received a call from the police saying that the car was involved in a "case".

"I went downstairs to check the car and it was gone.

"I then checked to see if my siblings were in their rooms, only to realise that Aminul was missing," she said, adding that she then walked outside the gate of her mother's home and saw police vehicle lights at the end of the road," she added.

"I walked towards the scene and saw my car along Jalan Tarian 11/2.

"I asked the police what had happened, who and where the driver was, but they refused to speak."

Tuty then went back to the house and tried calling Aminulrasyid on his handphone but the calls went unanswered.

She also tried calling his friends but to no avail.

She said when the car was towed to the police headquarters in Section 11 at 7am, she noticed a bullet hole at the back windscreen and blood on the front seats.

"My mum and siblings went to the police station at 10am that day and were told to go to the hospital in Klang to identify his body," she said, adding that she later joined them at the hospital.

Speaking calmly, Tuty, who was then an assistant to a company chairman, described her brother as a smart and active boy.

"He plays football every evening and when my children go over to the house, he would also teach them Mathematics.

"He never answers back, he was very 'manja' with my mother and he did not have disciplinary problems," she said.

To a question by counsel Salim Bashir, who is representing Jenain, Tuty admitted that she was shocked to learn that Aminulrasyid had driven her car that night.

Tuty's father-in-law, Mahali Ramlan, 69, a retiree, and her husband, Muzafar Mahali, 36, an operations manager, also testified that they had never seen or placed the machete in the car.

Hearing continues before judge Latifah Mohd Tahar on Oct 28.

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