‘Defendant allegedly threatened teachers’

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here on Thursday heard that the first defendant in the teacher absenteeism trial had allegedly made a verbal death threat in Bajau Samah language to two teachers.

A star witness, who was testifying before Justice Datuk Ismail Brahim, claimed that Mohd Jainal Jamran allegedly uttered the death threat during a meeting by saying “Jogo kam pepataiku kam duang ngan”.

Under examination-in-chief, the witness testified that the alleged death threat was meant for her and Ibrahim Khan Jardoon, who was the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) teacher.

Ibrahim was a subpoenaed witness who had given his evidence in this trial.

“He (Jainal) allegedly spoke in Bajau Samah language which means “beware, I’m gonna kill you both”, claimed the witness.

The witness further testified that she was pretty sure the alleged death threat was heard by other teachers present in the meeting, including a language department head.

“After the meeting that night,

I received a phone call from the language department head informing me that she had been informed by the school’s clerk that Ibrahim and I should not attend school the next day due to the concerns that Mohd Jainal would try to do something bad to us.

“I accept this as an advice and a caution because I am really scared and worried about the safety of both of us,” testified the witness.

To a question, the witness testified that that was the reason why she advised Ibrahim not to attend school the next day after the meeting at the District Education Centre office in Kota Belud on Aug 24, 2015.

The sole plaintiff for this suit, Siti Nafirah Siman, 23, apart from naming Mohd Jainal as defendant, also named Hj Suid Hj Hanapi (sued in his capacity as school’s principal), Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taun Gusi, District Education Officer of Kota Belud, Director of Education Sabah, Director General of Education Malaysia, Minister of Education Malaysia and Government of Malaysia as second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth defendants respectively.

In her suit, Siti Nafirah claimed that the first defendant had allegedly failed to teach the English Language subject to her and her classmates during his assigned periods or timetable for the academic year of 2015.

She also claimed that the other defendants had allegedly failed to take action against the first defendant for his alleged failure to teach her and her classmates.

Counsel Shireen Sikayun represented Siti Nafirah. Senior Federal Counsel Jesseca Daimis and Federal Counsel Mohd Fazriel Fardiansyah Abdul Kadir acted for all the defendants.

Meanwhile, counsel Datin Mary Florence Gomez (Sabah Law Society’s Women and Children’s Rights SubCommittee chairperson) and Yannik Mohd Annuar held a watching brief for Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

The trial will resume on

March 8.