KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here yesterday heard that the Special Branch (SB) did not record the telephone conversations it intercepted of suspects in the Lahad Datu intrusion.
Supervising officer of the Bukit Aman SB communication interception unit, ASP Muhammad Fauzairi Jaidin said the intercepted conversations were transcribed before being typed on a computer and printed out.
“But those written notes were destroyed as soon as the communication interception assignment was completed,” he said.
He was testifying in the trial of 30 individuals allegedly linked to the intrusion by Sulu gunmen at Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu about two years ago.
To a question by counsel Datuk N Sivananthan during cross examination, the witness said intercepted telephone calls could be recorded, but not in this case.
“In this case no recording was made because there was no instruction from the officers concerned,” he said.
To another question by Sivananthan, Muhammad Fauzairi told the court that his unit was not directly involved in the case of an SB personnel Corporal Hassan Ali Basari. Hassan Ali was convicted for withholding information on the intrusion in August 2013.
The witness explained that the target of the communication interception at the time was not Hassan Ali but an individual known as ‘Datu Bahang’.
In the dock are 27 Filipinos and three local residents who are facing one to multiple charges.
They are accused of being members of a terrorist group, waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.
They allegedly committed the offences between Feb 12 and April 10, 2013.
The hearing, before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department, continues today. — Bernama