Everyone is a liar?

SHAH ALAM: A defence counsel contended that several police witnesses in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial appeared to be telling lies because of the contradictions in their testimonies.

But this contention did not go down well with the prosecution.

Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, counsel for accused Kpl Sirul Azhar Umar, was continuing his submissions on the admissibility of Asst Supt Zulkarnain Samsudin’s testimony that alleged his client had led police to recover the jewellery from his Kota Damansara flat.

The lawyer pointed out that each version of the events at the flat on Nov 7, 2006, as given by ASP Zulkarnain, C/Insp Koh Fei Cheow, L/Kpl Kamarolzaman Mat Nor and Kpl Chiam Swee Guan had differences.

With all the contradictions, Kamarul Hisham argued that there was no way of knowing who was telling the truth.

“Everyone seems to be telling lies,” he said.

Read the entire report here.

Every law student (including mine) will know what the prosecution has to do - he has to prove the case on the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. So the defence counsel is just doing his job i.e. to raise a reasonable doubt.

But what did the prosecution do? Like a small child in a playground who feels insulted, he jumps up and accused the accused person of being a liar also!!! You call my witnesses liars, well, so is your client! Here's wat was reported:-

A clearly unhappy lead prosecutor Deputy Public Prosecutor Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah stood up and retorted that all the accused – C/Insp Azilah Hadri, Kpl Sirul Azhar and Abdul Razak Baginda – were also telling lies if that was the case.

Tun, so what if all the accused are lying? In such a situation - where for example, the prosecution witnesses are lying AND the accused persons are lying, what would be the outcome of the case? An immediate acquittal! Tun, you would have failed to prove your case - and the accused persons do not even have to take the stand!

So, Tun, you should therefore focus on proving your case instead of having childish court-room outbursts and theatrics. The learned Judge allowed the defense counsel to proceed and had to remind Tun "...that he would get his turn to submit later".

And apparently, Tun is one of the top prosecutors in the land.

Malaysia boleh!