Facing the music: Avitan being escorted to the Sessions Court over his charge of trafficking firearms. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: The closed-circuit television footage in the case of Israeli Avitan Shalom will not be disclosed to the public.
The Sessions Court here allowed the prosecution’s application for access to the footage to be granted only to expert witnesses.
Judge Norina Zainol Aabidin made the ruling after deputy public prosecutor Rullizah Abdul Majid told the court that the CCTV footage should only be used as reference by expert witnesses during the trial.
“The prosecution has handed over the CCTV footage to the defence lawyer, requesting that it not be disclosed to any other party or the public.
“We have also submitted all necessary documents, including the forensic report analysis, to the defence,” said Rullizah during case mention yesterday, reported Bernama.
Avitan’s lawyer Jeffrey Ooi did not object to the application.
The 38-year-old Israeli is charged with possessing a box containing eight Shell Shock NAS3 9mm bullets, three boxes of Bullet Master Co Ltd containing 150 bullets, and 42 bullets in three firearms without a permit.
The charge was framed under Section 8(a) of the Arms Act 1960 (Act 206) which provides for a maximum imprisonment of seven years or a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or both if convicted.
Avitan was also charged with trafficking firearms, namely a Glock 19 USA 9x19, Sig Sauer P3205P, Cougar 8000FT, Austrian Glock 17 Gen4 9x19, M&P 9C Smith & Wesson Springfield MA USA and Stoeger Cougar 8000F.
The charge, framed under Section 7(1) of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 (Act 37), provides a minimum of 30 years’ imprisonment and a maximum of 40 years and not less than six strokes of the cane if found guilty.
Both offences were allegedly committed in a hotel room in Jalan Ampang here between 6.46pm on March 26 and 6pm on March 28 this year.
Meanwhile, Rullizah requested that the previously set trial dates be rescheduled, as one of the deputy public prosecutors, Mohamad Mustaffa P. Kunyalam, would be involved in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd case, which overlaps with the Avitan case.
“Previously, the trial was set for Sept 30, Oct 1 to 3, and Oct 7 to 11. Therefore, the prosecution requests that Sept 30, the first day of the trial, be fixed for case mention to reschedule the trial dates,” she said.
Norina then set Sept 30 for next mention of the case to fix new trial dates.
