Court finds Yusoff Rawther's car door has no keyhole, defence claims holes in prosecution case

The drugs and firearms trial of Muhammed Yusoff Rawther today continued outside the courtroom to take a closer look at the car belonging to the former staff member at Anwar Ibrahim's office, with a prosecution witness re-enacting the police raid on the vehicle last September.

Judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin allowed the press to cover the proceedings in the compound of the court complex while the vehicle was inspected with a handcuffed Yusoff also present.

Prosecution witness Inspector Wan Muhammad Wan Ali, who led the raid on Sept 6 last year, re-enacted how he instructed Yusoff to unlock the driver's door after it could not be opened with remote control.

Wan Muhammad, who was the first witness to take the stand on Monday, had told the court that Yusoff had manually opened the vehicle by using a key to unlock the front passenger door before he was told to unlock the driver's door from the inside.

However, the court found today that there was no keyhole on the front passenger door of the Nissan Teana.

When questioned by defence lawyer Takiyuddin Hassan, Wan Muhammad agreed with a suggestion that there were several ways to access the car during the police ambush.

Takiyuddin: Do you agree that it is not possible to use a manual key on the passenger side?

Wan Muhammad: I agree that there is no direct access.

Takiyuddin: Does that mean that your statement on the first day is wrong, incorrect and a lie?

Wan Muhammad: I disagree.

In response to a question from the prosecution, Wan Muhammad agreed that under normal circumstances, one can be forced to unlock a car.

Speaking to reporters later, Takiyuddin said that Wan Muhammad's statement raised doubts.

"When told that someone else could have opened the door or that the door could have been forced open or that Yusoff was not the one who opened it, the witness (Wan Muhammad) agreed to these possibilities.

"We consider the testimony lends suspicion to the prosecution's case and gives the defence the 'benefit of the doubt"," said Takiyuddin, who is also the Kota Bharu MP.

Among the possibilities suggested to the witness were that the passenger door could not be opened manually, that the door was forced open and that the door was opened by a police officer who was with Yusoff and not by Yusoff himself.

Meanwhile, lawyer Rafique Rashid believes the testimony shatters the prosecution's case.

"To this day, no one has really understood how the car was opened," he said.

Following the raid, the car was taken to Dang Wangi police headquarters.

Yusoff is facing charges under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and Section 36 of the Firearms Act.

According to the charge sheet, police found drugs and firearms in his car parked outside the Dang Wangi police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Yusoff, the grandson of the late Penang consumer advocate SM Mohamed Idris, has strongly denied police claims, and instead said he was framed by people in power who harbour a grudge against him due to his ongoing civil suit for sexual assault against Anwar.

His family members have recounted how Yusoff was restrained while police searched the car and claimed to have found two pistols and 305g of cannabis.

The incident occurred a week after Yusoff submitted the list of witnesses for his suit against Anwar.

He has since filed two police reports with names of people to be investigated, including Farhash Wafa Salvador, Anwar's former political secretary. Police have yet to comment on the status of the reports.

"Then one of them ordered Yusoff to open the car door manually but it still would not open," Yusoff's aunt, Fathima Idris had told the press.

Yusoff worked as Anwar's research assistant at the politician's bungalow office in Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya in 2018.

In 2021, he filed a lawsuit alleging that the PKR leader sexually assaulted him in October 2018, just days before he won the Port Dickson by-election.

Anwar has denied the allegations.

In July 2021, Yusoff filed his civil suit against Anwar, with the trial fixed on June 16.