Policeman tells panel he was told to lodge false report

PUTRAJAYA: A police inspector admitted to the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) probing the Wang Kelian human-trafficking case that he had lodged a false report over the arrest of five illegal immigrants four years ago.

The report that appeared in the police system at 12.30am on March 14, 2015, was lodged by Inspector Mohd Husyairi Musa, who was then attached with the Padang Besar district Police Operation Intelligence Unit.

Husyairi was grilled by the seven-member RCI panel, led by former chief justice Tun Arifin Zakaria, on why the report stated that he came across the illegal immigrants and arrested them, when in actual fact he had only received the foreigners from the Special Branch Unit at a garbage disposal area near the Perlis State Park on March 13, 2015.

He told the RCI that the report was crafted based on instructions from then Padang Besar district police chief Superintendent Rizani Che Ismail.

Panel member, former Malaysian ambassador to Thailand Datuk Nazirah Hussin asked Husyairi his reason for doing so. Husyairi: I had drafted the police report based on instructions from the (then Padang Besar) district police, focusing on the offence of the immigrants.

Nazirah: So you did not come across (and arrest the illegal immigrants) them?

Husyairi: No. But I had to do the report in such a way because I was instructed to do so.

Nazirah: Who instructed you to do the report in such a way? Husyairi: The (then) police district chief.

Nazirah: So what was written in the report is incorrect? Husyairi: Yes.

When pressed, Husyairi said the person who instructed him was Rizani.

RCI deputy chairman (former inspector-general of police) Tan Sri Norian Mai then told Husyairi that he could be charged with lodging a false report, to which the latter replied that he was “just following instructions”.

The RCI was also told that the illegal immigrants were received, with their hands bound with cable ties, accompanied by a group of between 10 and 15 Special Branch personnel in plainclothes.

Two of the illegal immigrants, he said, were from Thailand while three others, aged between 15 and 17, were believed to be from Myanmar.

Husyairi said his men found a Smith and Wesson pistol from checks on one of the Thai nationals, identified as Biau Wong Chunpo, then 44.

His men, he said, confiscated a sling bag containing RM410 and 100 baht (RM12.91) from the other Thai man identified as Suriyan.

Husyairi said police also seized a parang, about 30.5cm long, from the 15-year-old Myanmar national identified as Yahya.

Asked if he knew where the immigrants were actually arrested by the Special Branch Unit, Husyairi said his only instruction was to receive the migrants.

Nazirah said Husyairi’s statement was related to the statement made by an earlier witness, Inspector Mohamad Afiq Sarmid.

Afiq, who was then the Vat 69 Group 8 commander, told the RCI that he had led a team of 25 people including himself, to comb, map and verify campsites at the Genting Perah area as requested by the Perlis Special Branch Unit.

The team, divided into four smaller teams comprising six men each, started their operation at 2am on March 11, 2015.

One of the four teams led by Afiq discovered campsites believed to used by illegal immigrants on March 13 the same year.

“There were 14 wooden makeshift camps. When the discovery was made, all that was left were structures of the camps.”

His other team, said Afiq, arrested five illegal immigrants, one of whom had a pistol. He said another immigrant was armed with a knife.

Afiq later told the RCI that he had received instructions to leave the area and hand over the immigrants to the Special Branch Unit waiting at the state park.

Afiq also said his team did not discover any graves near the campsite.