TENOM, Dec 20 — A witness in the trial of preacher Ebit Irawan Ibrahim Lew, or Ebit Lew, told the Magistrates’ Court here today that he saw the obscene messages and pictures in the WhatsApp application allegedly sent by the preacher, on the complainant’s mobile phone.

The president of non-governmental organisation Multiracial Reverted Muslims (MRM), Firdaus Wong Wai Hung, who is the third witness in the trial, said he saw the obscene messages and pictures directly on the mobile phone of the female complainant.

"The voice messages and obscene pictures that I saw on the mobile phone of the complainant (the woman) were on the WhatsApp application itself and not screenshots,” he said during examination-in-chief by Deputy Public Prosecutor Zahida Zakaria today.

Wong said he saw the messages and the pictures on the complainant’s mobile phone when meeting her on August 7, 2021.

Zahida: Can you recognise the picture on the complainant’s mobile phone?

Wong: Yes, that’s one of the pictures I saw on the complainant’s mobile phone.

During cross-examination by lawyer Ram Singh, Wong agreed that he had met the complainant after a police report was lodged at Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur.

Ram: You also testified that you have allegedly seen her handphone with text messages or photographs when you met her after she lodged a police report, correct?

Wong: Yes

Ram: Do you know when (complainant) surrendered her phone to the police after she lodged a police report?

Wong: I don’t know.

Ram: So when you said you have seen the text messages and photographs from the complainant’s phone after she had lodged (the police report) do you know what time?

Wong: More or less between 9pm and 1am.

Ram: So this one is when you met her at Hotel Ascott, Brickfields Kuala Lumpur agreed?

Wong: Yes, I agree.

Ebit Lew, 37, faces 11 charges, including insulting the modesty of a woman in her 40s by sending obscene words and pictures to the victim’s phone number via the WhatsApp application between March and June last year.

The charge, under Section 509 of the Penal Code, provides for a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine, or both, upon conviction.

The trial before Magistrate Nur Asyraf Zolhani continues tomorrow. — Bernama