A DISTRICT judge has slammed the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB)
for its sloppy investigation into stevedore Yunani Abdul Hamid's
case.
Explaining why she acquitted Mr Yunani, District Judge Jasvender
Kaur said the bureau should have done more to track down his
alleged accomplice Abdul Aziz Idros.
The extent of the CNB's search for Abdul Aziz back in April 1992
amounted to just one visit to his flat and the issuance of an alert
to all law enforcement agencies.
Abdul Aziz, who is now serving a 12-year jail sentence, has
admitted in court that he had kept in constant contact with his
family during his 15 years on the run.
Judge Jasvender criticised the investigating officer at that
time, Staff Sergeant Cheong Wah Chow, saying he should have done
much more.
Mr Yunani and Abdul Aziz were leaving a port at which they
worked on a motorcycle when a guard stopped them and found a bag of
cannabis in a bag carried by Abdul Aziz.
Both men fled, but Mr Yunani later turned himself in. He
maintained that the bag belonged to his friend and he did not know
its contents.
As Abdul Aziz was on the run, Mr Yunani was placed on remand
until the bag's ownership could be confirmed. He was discharged in
December that year, but with the proviso that he could be
re-charged if new evidence came to light.
Judge Jasvender said it was 'quite remarkable' that Staff Sgt
Cheong had not taken steps to verify who owned the bag when he
could have just asked the men's colleagues.
The officer, who retired in 2000, could also have interviewed
relatives of both men to see if the bag, or the clothes inside,
belonged to either one of them, she noted.
Instead, the authorities 'simply chose to wait' for Abdul Aziz
to be arrested.
The wait lasted 15 years.
The judge called the lack of a thorough investigation a
'complete neglect of duties'.
She added that 'at the very least', the CNB should have
determined who owned the bag, interviewed Mr Yunani's friends and
family to see if he had any motivation to traffick the drug as well
as verified Mr Yunani's account of events with his colleagues.
The judge also had pointed remarks for Deputy Public Prosecutor
Lim Tse Haw.
She found it 'seriously troubling' that the prosecution had
initially refused to show Mr Yunani his police statements made way
back in 1992, despite her asking for it to be done due to the long
delay in prosecution.
She said the refusal was 'plainly not in the right spirit and
did not show a sense of fairness' by the prosecution.
The prosecutor finally did so at the judge's order.
But what destroyed the prosecution's case was Abdul Aziz's
credibility.
Judge Jasvender said the 'resurrecting' of the charges against
Mr Yunani, now 34, after 15 years was based largely on Abdul Aziz's
word.
But Abdul Aziz, now 41, was a self-confessed cannabis user, a
fugitive for 15 years who had even tried to evade arrest by
producing false identity documents when he was caught at a
roadblock.
Facing a capital charge, the judge noted, it was 'only natural'
for Abdul Aziz to shift the blame from himself.