Sirul’s lawyer says defence team blind-sided

[...] In his application for access to DSP Musa Safri’s cautioned statement recorded under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code, counsel Kamarul Hisham

Kamaruddin said the defence team was blind-sided in preparing for defence because they were not supplied the cautioned statement.

He said Musa was an important witness to rebut Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda’s affidavit and the rebuttal evidence could only come from Musa but the prosecution did not call him to the stand as their witness.

“The prosecution will argue that we can interview DSP Musa but interviewing him is of no value if we do not know what he has said to the police. Thus, the defence is blind-sided,’ he said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Manoj Kurup objected to Kamarul’s application to access the cautioned statement.

The cautioned statement was a privileged document, he said.

“We have offered the witness and he is available for interview. The defence argued that they are blind-sided because they do not have the document, but they can actually ask the witness whether he made the same statement to the police.

“Until now we do not know what interest the accused has regarding that statement.

“The statement was with regards to the third accused (Razak). The second accused was in no way mentioned in the affidavit other than the third accused saying that he does not know the second accused,” he said.[read more]