At the Subordinate Courts today, the authenticity of the videotape submitted by the prosecution to support its case against the arrest of two SDP leaders on May Day was challenged.
Mr Gandhi Ambalam, CEC Member and head of public relations and international affairs of SDP who has 15 years of experience in the electronic medium, said that the videotape shown to the court in the afternoon was heavily edited and doctored. He further challenged that the prosecutions videotape was different from the one that was viewed jointly by the prosecution and the defence the previous day.
While giving evidence this morning Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of SDP, had repeatedly asked for the prosecutions videotape to be screened to prove the inconsistency of the evidence given by police officers in the past two days. But Dr Chees request was strenuously opposed by Mr Bala Reddy, the prosecutor. The judge ruled in favour of the prosecution and the tape was not shown to Dr Chee when he took the stand.
At this mornings hearing, the defence placed before the court its version of unedited real-time videotape.
Tomorrow, the joint trial enters its fourth day. Dr Chee faces two charges, one of willful trespass into the Istana area and the other trying to hold a rally there without licence on 1 May to mark Labour Day. In addition to the two charges, Mr Gandhi faces an extra charge of behaving in a disorderly manner.
The trial is expected to last till Friday.