Witness laughed when told he was appointed ‘penghulu’

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KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here yesterday heard that a witness in the Lahad Datu intrusion trial felt funny when he came to know that he was appointed as a ‘penghulu’ during the installation of Sultan Datu Muedzullail Tan Kiram in Jolo.

Abd Hadi Mawan, 52, told Justice Stephen Chung that he laughed soon after he received a paper from his friend known as Abraham to show that he had been appointed as a penghulu, the number two man after Abraham.

“I brought the paper back home and I laughed. I was thinking who am I to compete with other people in Sabah to be an important person. So I went to the kitchen and burnt the paper as I was thinking who am I — even Primary One I did not complete,” said the witness in a humorous tone.

Under cross-examination by Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, the 11th witness testified that Abraham was his friend who had invited him to go to the Philippines to attend a feast, but he did not know that the feast was actually the installation ceremony for Datu Muedzullail Tan Kiram as the Sulu Sultan.

The witness recalled that he followed Abraham as he also wanted to meet a religious leader in Bungao, Philippines, who was known as a traditional medicine man to get his services as he was also sick at that time.

To a question by Mohd Dusuki, the witness explained that he had once gone to the Philippines before with his wife.

The witness said he and his wife entered the Philippines without proper travel documents at that time as he did not think about documentations to go there.

“Now I know that it was an offence for me to do that but at that time I was thinking why thousands of people from the Philippines could easily come to Sabah without proper documents and why couldn’t I do the same?” asked the witness.

The trial, held at a hall which doubled as an open court at the Kepayan prisons here under tight security checks by police and prison personnel, continues on April 11.