Former Bukit Aman Internal Security and Public Order director Deputy Police Commissioner Rashid Harun said he went with four police officers to meet Sulu gunmen leader Datu Agimuddin Kiram at Kampung Tanduo on Feb 15 last year posing as a Sargeant Major.
He said the low rank enabled him to mingle with Agimuddin's gunmen while assessing the enemy’s strength - including their numbers and the type of weapons they were carrying – and the terrain of the area.
Rashid, now Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) Director of Security and Public Order, was the first witness to testify at the trial of 30 people charged for various security offences in connection with the Sulu gunmen intrusion at Lahad Datu district in February 2013.
The hearing for 29 men and a woman began at a hall designated as an open courtroom in the state prison complex at Kepayan, here.
Questioned by Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Rashid told High Court judge Stephen Chung that he counted 79 people including five women dressed in fatigues when he went to Kampung Tanduo with Sabah police Special Branch Datuk Zulkefli Abdul Aziz on that day.
Two of the gunmen were armed with M16 rifles while another was totting a .45 pistol on his waist and most of them were carrying machetes, Rashid said.
He said they had brought with them food including rice and cooking utensils as requested by Agimuddin in a meeting with Zulkefli a day earlier.
Rashid said upon reaching a house in the village where the meeting with Agimuddin was held, his task as a "junior" officer was to carry the food supplies to the kitchen and then mingling with some of the gunmen.
To another question from Gani, he said he had overheard Agimuddin telling Zulkefli that he (Agimuddin) was not leaving the village unless ordered to do so by his elder brother, the self styled Sulu Sultan Ismail Kiram.
Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer Datuk N Sivananthan represented 27 of the accused while other counsels for the three other persons were Kamaruddin Mohmad Chinki, Rowiena Rashid and Abdul Gani Zulika.
Twenty-two of the accused faced two charges under Sections 121 and 131KA of the Penal Code for waging war against the Agong and being a member of terrorist group respectively.
Among those facing the two charges that provides for the death penalty life imprisonment respectively were Datu Amirbahar Hussin Kiram, a nephew sultan Ismail Kiram and “general” of the “Royal Sulu Force” that intruded into Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu in February.
Others charged for similar offences were Basad Samuel, Mohamad Ali Ahmad, Pabblo Allie, Abd Hadi Mawan, Atik Hussin Abu Bakar, Dani Ismail, Saidili Jaharul, Totoh Hismullah and Basil Samiul,
Those also charged for the two offences were Rizman Gulan, Abdul Majil Jubin, Rijmal Salleh, Julham Rashid, Tani Lahad Dahi, Al Wazir Osman @ Abdul, Virgilio Nemar Patulada, Masir Aidin, Anwar Salib Akhmad, Ismail Yasin and Binhar Salib Akhmad.
Another four individuals were only charged under Section 130KA of the Penal Code and they were Aman Radie, Timhar Hadir, Holland Kalbi and Lin Mad Salleh.
Three individuals, including a woman, had been charged under Section 130K of the Penal Code for harbouring terrorists.
Those charged under this Section that provides for life imprisonment were Norhaida Ibnahi as well as Kadir Uyung and Lating Tiong.
One more accused - Salib Akhmad Emali - faced all three charges and a fourth under Section 130E of the Penal Code for recruiting individuals to become members of a terror group.
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