Mr Tan said , there were two functions of the court hearing- primary to sweet the extra charges and next to have the new charges transferred to the High Court.
Asked to give his appeal, Iswaran said:” No guilty”.
Mr Thevar next asked the trial to let the judge and army know if it intends to file any additional charges against Iswaran.
” Today the army is raising this, your glory, because of the following conditions: On Jan 5, 2024, the trial recorded 36 cautioned comments from our client”, said Mr Thevar.
” These eight that were filed today were not part of the 36. However, at the first mention on Jan 18, 2024, the prosecution gave the defence only 27 charges without telling the defence it was not proceeding on nine charges, and your honour will recall that when we learnt there were 27 and not 36, we raised ( this ) to the court”.
Mr Thevar continued:” The prosecutors said they had decided to drop nine charges after having considered all the evidence in this case. There was no mention of the prospect of more fees”.
The attorney said the military wrote to the trial on Jan 31 to tell that Iswaran intended to apply for an earlier trial so the matter may be thoroughly aired and decided as soon as possible.  ,
The prosecutors did not mention the possibility of more fees in its reply, Mr Thevar said.
” On Mar 16, three days before the first CCDC ( criminal case disclosure conference ) in High Court on Mar 19, CPIB asked our client to attend at its offices on Mar 18″, the lawyer said.
When Iswaran went to CPIB’s department on Mar 18, he was served the eight fresh claims and CPIB took cautioned comments from him, said Mr Thevar.
” It is not clear why these eight charges have been brought only now”, he said. ” I may show to your honour that they relate to things CPIB had previously asked our clientele about in July and August last year. Our customer was not even asked to attend any more conversations to answer any question about those things”.
Mr Thevar said Iswaran asked the CPIB commander on Mar 18 when the new expenses may be brought in court, and the answer was that a decision had not been made as to whether the eight charges may be brought.
Iswaran was informed solely on Mar 22 that the trial had decided to file the eight claims against him, said Mr Thevar.
In response, the Chief Prosecutor said:” All charges are tendered against the accused person in this case based on evidence received by CPIB and reviewed by AG C”.
He added that this was not the right platform for the army to elevate these issues and that he could increase them before the High Court.
He asked the court to have the fees transferred to the High Court for the next CCDC on Apr 2.
The prosecutor got Iswaran’s trustee to embrace the new claims and transferred the eight new fees to the High Court for the purpose of test.