Taken from Free Malaysia Today
Is the police giving native NCR land activist, Numpang Suntai, the runaround due to the involvement of a logging company belongng to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's sister Raziah?
KUCHING: An activist and a defender of native customary rights (NCR) land, Numpang Suntai, is upset at being given the runaround by the police and the courts.
For the third time today, the Kuching High Court had allowed for a postponement because the police had failed yet again to prepare their appeal against him.
Numpang, who wasn’t alone in court, was accompanied by 100 other native land owners who had travelled all the way from Sebangan, Simunjan some 150 kilometres from here to the Kuching High Court only to be told yet again that the case was not ready for hearing.
According to Numpang’s counsel See Chee How, Numpang and his supporters are “not happy with the continuous delay of the case,”
“This is the third delay which is caused by the fact that the letter of appeal is yet to be prepared,” See said.
Numpang was first asked by the police to appear in the Kuching High Court on April 8. But when he appeared in the court that morning, he was told the letter of appeal was not ready.
Two weeks ago he was again asked to appear before the court, and again the letter of appeal was not yet prepared and served on him or his lawyers.
“This morning the same thing happened again,” said See.
According to See, Judge Ravinthran N Paramaguru postponed the case to July 18, 2011.
“It is most unfair for Numpang who came all the way from Sebangan in Simunjan to Kuching. Again for the third time the letter of appeal is yet to be prepared and to be served on him or his lawyers,” said See.
Criminal intimidation
The police had appealed against a decision by Magistrate Sharizat Ismail who ruled that the prosecution had failed to put up a prima facie case against Numpang who was charged for criminal intimidation.
The case which was heard on March 9 at the Simunjan district court was brought against him by logging company, Quality Concrete Holdings, owned by chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah.
Numpang, a native activist and a defender of NCR land was arrested on Oct 22, 2010 together with another well-known activist Nicholas Mujah and five longhouse chiefs in connection with a fire that occurred on Oct 18, 2010.
The fire had allegedly destroyed the campsite of a logging company, Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd, a contractor of the licence-holder Quality Concrete Holdings.
In that fire, six tractors, two logging trucks, a pick-up and excavator were damaged. The company estimated its losses to be worth more than RM2 million.
The seven were detained for three days at the Simunjan Police station, but were later released on police bail of RM1,000 each.
However, only Numpang was charged, not for causing fire but for criminal intimidation.
Quality Concrete Holdings has been in the centre of the dispute after the State Forest Department issued it a licence to carry out logging in 3,305 hectares of forest which the natives claimed to be part of their NCR land.
The company then handed over the contract works to Loyal Billion to extract timber believed to be among the best rainforest species in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, Numpang and the NCR landowners have already filed a civil suit against Quality Concrete Holding for allegedly encroaching into their NCR land. The case is expected to be heard on August 8, 2011
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