Police Avert Attack In The Courthouse
By Rol Ezam and MK Anwar

Bandar Seri Begawan - Four suspects, all foreigners, were brought to the Magistrate’s Court yesterday following the alleged abduction of a local lawyer, Naz Parveen Rashid, Tuesday.

Plainclothes Police personnel in the courthouse had to intervene when three men from the public gallery, who appeared to be either friends or relatives of the victim, tried to attack the suspects who were seated in the dock.

They were later handcuffed and taken into custody as police restored order in the court.

The incident took place soon after the Senior Magistrate Hj Abdullah Soefri DSP Hj Abidin left the court.

Earlier, the Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Yusree Hj Junaidi read the charges to the four suspects, who were arrested by the police on Wednesday following the alleged abduction.

The four suspects are Suhaili bin Elias, Mohd Shahnizam bin Samsudin, Azman bin Pungut and Fenny De David Martin Danori.

They are being charged with confining the lawyer to extort any properties. It is an offence under section 347 of the Penal Code, Section 34, which provides for a jail term of 10 years and whipping of not less than 3 strokes upon conviction.

However, no plea has been taken yet in which the suspects understood the charge.

The court also heard that all the suspects who were from a neighbouring country did not have any proper travel documents.

All of them are being remanded at a ‘secret’ place, which was not revealed in court yesterday for safety reasons as applied by Mohd Yusree yesterday.

The Deputy Public Prosecutor applied for two weeks remand as the police still need to conduct an identification parade as the arrests were only made Wednesday. They will appear again in the courthouse on September 18 at 2 pm.

Meanwhile, police who acted swiftly to apprehend the suspects within 16 hours on Wednesday continued their investigations yesterday.

The news of the alleged abduction sent shockwaves in the capital and elsewhere in the Sultanate where such crime is hardly heard of.

Meanwhile, informed sources said yesterday the four suspects had stayed at a luxury hotel in Gadong’s busy area before being apprehended by the police. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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