KUALA TERENGGANU – The Sessions Court here was on Wednesday told that the short-messaging system (SMS) account used to send threats to three Terengganu assemblymen from Barisan Nasional (BN) was activated before the subscription payment was made.
Mohd Latif Kachong, the managing director of Syarikat Mobile Biz Network, which owns the OwnSmS-Broadcast service application, said he approved the activation of the account for a customer known only as Irwan after being asked to do so by the owner of the company, Hazwan Abu Hassan.
Mohd Latif said the activation of a certain account, be it before or after the subscription payment was made, was his prerogative.
“Hazwan had asked me to activate the account for Irwan for Umno’s use. Upon activation of the account, I gave the account name and its password to Hazwan. I don’t even know who Irwan is,” he said when asked by the defence lawyer before Judge M Bakri Abd Majid.
(Pic – File pic shown Ramzi at police station Kuala Terengganu, showing the ‘SMS’ on his hand phone to the mdia)
Mohd Latif was testifying in the trial of Datuk Dr Ahmad Ramzi Mohamad Zubir, political secretary to former Terengganu menteri besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, who is accused of committing criminal intimidation through SMS to the three BN assemblymen.
Mohd Latif also said he could not ascertain whether the application system and the server or Irwan’s account had been hacked.
He said the company did not govern the server in which the application was stored as it was managed by another company.
Ahmad Ramzi is charged with four counts of committing criminal intimidation through SMS.
On the first count, he is charged with committing criminal intimidation by threatening the life of Paka assemblyman Mohd Ariffin Abdullah at E726 Jalan Kubang Parit, Kampung Kubang Parit at 11.21pm on April 13.
He is also charged with doing the same to Permaisuri assemblyman Abdul Halim Jusoh and Ajil assemblyman Datuk Rosol Wahid between 11.21pm and 11.25pm the same day.
Ahmad Ramzi is also charged with slandering Wan Ahamad Wan Muda, the former private secretary of Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said by posting a SMS threat on the lives of the three assemblymen on the website http://ownsmsbiz.com/v1 by using a mobile phone with number 019-9158369 owned by Wan Ahamad at the same place between 11.21pm and 11.25pm the same day.
Ahmad Ramzi was represented by lawyers Datuk Hazman Ahmad, Mohd Noor Mahmood and Rosli Abd Rahman, while deputy public prosecutors Ishak Yusoff, Ooi Chooi Gaik and Nur Azimul Azami appeared for the prosecution.
The trial resumes on Oct 26.
— BERNAMA
