Richard Ness : Blog : "Ministry of Environment's November 2004 Technical Team's Report" Ridiculed in Court.
"Ministry of Environment's November 2004 Technical Team's Report" Ridiculed in Court. - 26 Jun 2006
by Eric
The last two weeks hearings have further confirmed that the case against my Dad is a hoax. The hearings and cross-examination of expert witnesses have revealed that the data were manufactured to fit the pre-determined conclusions of a group of politically motivated regulators and NGOs. A witness also confirmed to the court that the regulator from the Ministry of Environment, Ms. Masneliyati Hilman has lied under oath when she denied to the court that she never saw the former Minster of Environment’s report on Buyat Bay. The possibility of perjury is currently under review.
While it would too lengthy to provide a detailed description of hearings, in this blog I would highlight the testimony by the expert witness Dr. Keith Bentley. Dr. Bentley in the past worked for the World Health Organization and his experience in the field of heavy metal toxicology spans multiple decades. The defense team confirmed the following facts to the court:
- There has never been a single case of Arsenic intoxication from fish consumption any where in the world to his knowledge. He said that the allegation of arsenic poisoning from fish consumption in Buyat Bay is untrue because inorganic arsenic in fish is virtually non-existent and bio-markers show that there is no evidence of any arsenic intoxication
- When the court asked about the symptoms of Minamata Disease, which mainly affects the neurological systems in patients, the witness apologized before the court that the only photo he had to show as an example was in black and white. He further stated that there have been no cases of “Minamata Disease” since major developments in color photography.
- When asked about the scientific validity of the Minister of Environment’s “Technical Team Report” dated 8 November 2004 which has been introduced into evidence against my Dad and PT NMR, he stated that it was probably the worst scientific work product that he had seen in 30 years. Some of the obvious errors included the ludicrous assumption that each person in Buyat Beach eats over one pound of fish per meal. But it is even more ridiculous that the report claims that people in Buyat Beach consume over 10 meals of that fish every day. In the case of children, that equates to a 30 pound child eating 4 ½ pounds of fish a day or over 10 percent of their body weight every day in fish, 365 days per year.
- But of primary interest was that even when the numbers are unrealistically inflated, the calculations show that the people are still safe and without risk because the level of inorganic arsenic in fish in Buyat is amongst the lowest in the world. The credit for this incredible calculation of applied sciences goes to none other than Ms. Masneliyati who was glorified by Jane Perleze of the NY Times as the star witness for the prosecution with a Doctoral Degree from the Colorado School of Mines.