SHAH ALAM, Oct 20 – A government chemist told the Sessions Court today she found no blood stains and no DNA profile on a machete, said to be taken from the car driven by underaged driver Aminulrasyid Amzah, who crashed and died after being chased by the police.
But Dr Seah Lay Hong (picture) stunned the court when she disclosed that two blood-stained articles of clothing submitted for testing that came packed together with samples of the teen’s blood stained hair were different from the clothes worn at the time of autopsy.
The forensic DNA specialist, based at the Chemistry Department in Petaling Jaya, said she had received some eight items on May 3 this year for examination and analysis.
Among the items were a rusty machete, a blood-stained Sisley brand T-shirt and a blood-stained pair of blue-and-white floral-printed shorts, believed to have been worn by Aminulrasyid at the time of his death on April 26.
“The swab from the hilt of the parang indicated no DNA profile,” she told the court this afternoon.
The police had previously claimed to have found a parang (machete) in the car driven by the schoolboy, which led them to suspect he was a criminal.
Aminulrasyid’s family has vehemently denied the 14-year-old was one and are still waiting for Putrajaya to apologise and retract its public statements calling him one.
The chemist also told the court the machete, which was about as long as an average man’s arm and had a curved blade, was rusted.
It showed the blade had “possibly not been used for some time”, Dr Seah remarked.
Under cross-examination from defence lawyers for Corporal Jenain Subi – accused of gunning down the teen in a high-speed car chase – Dr Seah said she had not run fingerprint tests on the machete.
The DNA profiling result was also inconclusive, she added, prompting lawyer Salim Bashir to ask what she meant.
“I swabbed. There was no DNA profile,” the chemist with 19 years’ experience said.
Suddenly switching tack, Salim referred Dr Seah to a set of photographs he said were taken at Aminulrasyid’s autopsy.
“In reference to the pictures, showing a body lying down, do you agree with me the shirt and shorts are different from what you see in the results?” the lawyer quizzed.
The scientist agreed.
A close-up frontal shot of the body from the head to the chest could be glimpsed from the public gallery as the lawyers leafed through a folder containing the post-mortem photographs.
In the picture, the body was wearing a bright yellow round-necked T-shirt.
Referring to the same set of photos, Salim’s colleague, M.M. Athimulan, had asked Dr Seah if she had received the clothes for DNA profiling.
“No, they were not submitted,” the trial’s 18th witness replied.
She also told the court the samples of blood kept in plastic tubes and labelled “Aminulrasyid bin Amzah” sent to her for testing were not in liquid form but were dried stains.
The DNA specialist – who may be remembered as an expert witness in the early days of the high-profiled inquest of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock – also told the court she did not know where the submitted Sisley T-shirt and floral blue-and-white shorts came from nor was she told who the clothes had belonged to.
Pressed by the defence over the accuracy of the results of DNA profiling, Dr Seah admitted the conclusion could be affected by an error of the samples at the time of collection and preservation.
Fellow chemist, Dr Mohd Sukri Hassan, who took to the witness stand after Dr Seah, testified running checks on Aminulrasyid’s blood samples for traces of alcohol and drugs but found neither substance present.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 10am tomorrow with testimony from Aminulrasyid’s sister Tuty Shaninza Anom, her husband and her father-in-law.
The forensic DNA specialist, based at the Chemistry Department in Petaling Jaya, said she had received some eight items on May 3 this year for examination and analysis.
Among the items were a rusty machete, a blood-stained Sisley brand T-shirt and a blood-stained pair of blue-and-white floral-printed shorts, believed to have been worn by Aminulrasyid at the time of his death on April 26.
“The swab from the hilt of the parang indicated no DNA profile,” she told the court this afternoon.
The police had previously claimed to have found a parang (machete) in the car driven by the schoolboy, which led them to suspect he was a criminal.
Aminulrasyid’s family has vehemently denied the 14-year-old was one and are still waiting for Putrajaya to apologise and retract its public statements calling him one.
The chemist also told the court the machete, which was about as long as an average man’s arm and had a curved blade, was rusted.
It showed the blade had “possibly not been used for some time”, Dr Seah remarked.
Under cross-examination from defence lawyers for Corporal Jenain Subi – accused of gunning down the teen in a high-speed car chase – Dr Seah said she had not run fingerprint tests on the machete.
The DNA profiling result was also inconclusive, she added, prompting lawyer Salim Bashir to ask what she meant.
“I swabbed. There was no DNA profile,” the chemist with 19 years’ experience said.
Suddenly switching tack, Salim referred Dr Seah to a set of photographs he said were taken at Aminulrasyid’s autopsy.
“In reference to the pictures, showing a body lying down, do you agree with me the shirt and shorts are different from what you see in the results?” the lawyer quizzed.
The scientist agreed.
A close-up frontal shot of the body from the head to the chest could be glimpsed from the public gallery as the lawyers leafed through a folder containing the post-mortem photographs.
In the picture, the body was wearing a bright yellow round-necked T-shirt.
Referring to the same set of photos, Salim’s colleague, M.M. Athimulan, had asked Dr Seah if she had received the clothes for DNA profiling.
“No, they were not submitted,” the trial’s 18th witness replied.
She also told the court the samples of blood kept in plastic tubes and labelled “Aminulrasyid bin Amzah” sent to her for testing were not in liquid form but were dried stains.
The DNA specialist – who may be remembered as an expert witness in the early days of the high-profiled inquest of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock – also told the court she did not know where the submitted Sisley T-shirt and floral blue-and-white shorts came from nor was she told who the clothes had belonged to.
Pressed by the defence over the accuracy of the results of DNA profiling, Dr Seah admitted the conclusion could be affected by an error of the samples at the time of collection and preservation.
Fellow chemist, Dr Mohd Sukri Hassan, who took to the witness stand after Dr Seah, testified running checks on Aminulrasyid’s blood samples for traces of alcohol and drugs but found neither substance present.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 10am tomorrow with testimony from Aminulrasyid’s sister Tuty Shaninza Anom, her husband and her father-in-law.
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