Defendant allegedly threatened teachers, witness tells court

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

A star witness, who was testifying before judge 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 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) spoke in Bajau Samah language which means ‘beware, I’m going to kill you both’,” claimed the witness.

The witness further testified that she was “pretty sure” the 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 accepted this as an advice and a caution because I was really scared and worried about the safety of both of us,” said the witness.

To a question, the witness said that was the reason why she advised Ibrahim not to attend school the next day after a meeting at the district education 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 Suid Hanapi who is being sued in his capacity as school’s principal; Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taun Gusi; Kota Belud district education officer; Sabah Education Department director; Malaysian Education Department director-general, Minister of Education; and the Malaysian government; 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.

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

Lawyer Datin Mary Florence Gomez from Sabah Law Society’s Women and Children’s Rights Sub-Committee, and Yannik Mohd Annuar from the Human Rights Commission, are holding a watching brief.

The trial continues today.