Testifying before the Kota Kinabalu High Court, former Sabah Special Branch deputy chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Zulkifli Abdul Aziz said he met Esmail Kiram, a brother of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, in late December 2012, according to the Malaysian newspaper The Star.
The meeting was held two months before a group of about 200 armed supporters of the sultanate entered the coastal village of Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu on February 11.
The group, calling themselves the “Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo,” was supposedly dispatched by Sultan Jamalul, under the leadership of his brother Agbimuddin Kiram, to reassert the family’s territorial claim to eastern Sabah.
Earlier on Wednesday, another witness claimed Malaysian authorities had intercepted telephone calls between Agbimuddin and his nephew Amir Bahar, who lives in Sabah.
But the sultanate’s spokesman Abraham Idjirani said in Taguig City on Wednesday that the sultanate will not honor whatever decision the Malaysian court will hand down.
“They have no rights and authority to try and prosecute Filipinos in Sabah because they do not own Sabah. They only have administrative authority,” Idjirani told Standard Today, citing the 1963 Manila Accord between Malaysia and the Philippines recognizing the sultanate’s rights over Sabah.
Idjirani said they will ask the United Nations Human Rights Commission to intervene in the trial of Amir Bahar and other Filipinos being held in Sabah in the aftermath of the intrusion that resulted in the death of eight Malaysian troops and at least 20 Sulu gunmen.
In his testimony, Zulkifli said he met with Esmail in late December 2012 to get to know him over a cup of coffee, but Esmail did not say anuthing about the intrusion and just wanted some help in finding Malaysian investors who may be interested in an oil palm plantation in Mindanao.
Zulkifli said he did not have advanced knowledge of the intrusion and only learned of the intrusion when he was told by a duty officer at the Sabah Command Control Center on Feb. 12.
The former police official said he again contacted Esmail on Feb. 12 to get the telephone number of his younger brother Agbimuddin.
Zulkifli testified at the trial of a Malaysian detective Hassan Ali Basari who was charged with withholding information relating to terrorist acts.
The first witness against Hassan was an administrative assistant of the Sabah police special branch, who claimed said she listened and translated intercepted phone calls between the sultan’s nephew Amir Bahar and Agbimuddin, who claims to be still in Sabah.
The Star Online reported that police started tapping into the phone calls of Hassan after a group of people wearing camouflage uniforms were spotted at Kampung Tanduo.
When questioned by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Nordin Hassan, the administrative assistant said she had listened to calls between Datu Amir Bahar and Raja Muda.
The administrative assistant said Amir Bahar said he came to know from Hassan who was a policeman that the authorities will go in at midnight and Agbimuddin replied that they were prepared, the Star reported on its website.
Another witness testified in the trial that Sabah police were tipped off as early as January about the plan of followers of Sulu Sultanate to sneak into Lahad Datu, according to Star Online.
The witness, a fish vendor, said he told Hassan Ali Basari about a “possible intrusion” after hearing 1,500 Kiram followers were planning to claim their ancestral land.
“I told him that they were four tempel (boats) that will enter Lahad Datu,” the Star Online’s report quoted the witness as saying.
Hassan is among 31 people charged in court for various offenses related to the Sabah incident. He pleaded not guilty to an amended charge of withholding information on terrorist activities before the Kota Kinabalu court.
At least 100 other Filipinos in Sabah suspected of conniving with Kiram’s followers have been charged with terrorism-related acts following the crackdown against suspected sympathizers by the Malaysian authorities.
By Ferdinand Fabella
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