THERE were disagreements in court on Friday as the first prosecution witness took the stand in the ongoing trial of 17 people charged with taking part in an illegal assembly outside Parliament House on Mar 15.

However, this came from among defendants themselves, as they could not see eye-to-eye on a number of matters.

Chief among these was the line of questioning of police photographer Nor Hidah Ali Jinnah, the witness.

At one point, lawyer Chia Ti Lik, a defendant, interrupted fellow defendant Yap Keng Ho's cross-examination to say: 'Your Honour, I do not see the relevance of this line of questioning. And I wonder why the DPP (Deputy Public Prosecutor) has not objected.'

Yap had been questioning the police photographer on the type of flash she used to take pictures of the scene. He said it was to establish the authenticity of the photos.

Staff Sergeant Nor Hidah had been tasked to take pictures of the area where the assembly and procession had allegedly taken place, to establish the setting.

Half an hour of questions from Yap delving into technical details of her camera equipment made his co-defendants lose patience.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.