Altantuya's Murder Trial Brought Forward To June 4

The Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial has been brought forward before a Judicial Commissioner to June 4, this year.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin who took over from judge Datuk K.N. Segara, fixed the new date after the case came up for mention Friday.

He fixed one month from June 4 until June 29 for the trial.

The same High Court had earlier fixed four weeks from March 10 next year for the trial as the court had too many backlog cases to hear.

Mohd Zaki said the trial of the case had been expedited following the appointment of three new judicial commissioners to hear the backlog criminal cases in Shah Alam High Court.

He also said that the case was transferred to him as Segara has a lot of partly heard cases to handle compared to him.

Abdul Razak Baginda, 46, a political analyst is accused of abetting two policemen from the special unit force to murder Altantuya.

The case attracted wide publicity following the discovery of the remains of the 28-year-old Altantuya in a forest in Puncak Alam here, in November last year.
Her body had been blown to bits with explosive.

Abdul Razak allegedly committed the offence between 9.54 am and 11.05 am on Oct 18 last year, at level 10 Bangunan Getah Asli in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.

C/Insp Azilah Hadri, 30, and Kpl Sirul Azhar Umar, 35, were accused of murdering the woman in Lot 12843 and Lot 16735, Mukim Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm, Oct 19 and 1 am, Oct 20 last year.

Razak is charged under section 109 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 302 of the same code which carries the mandatory death sentence, if convicted. He is currently held in prison pending the trial following his failure in several attempts to be released on bail on health reasons.

Mohd Zaki explained that all the three accused were not brought to court for today's proceeding as today was only fixed for mention to determine the trial dates. (Bernama)

***** Oooh Boy!! What pressure must have been exerted on the Judiciary to hastily arrange such a blatantly irregular 'brought forward' trial. And the excuses! Three more Judicial Commissioners appointed to Shah Alam and Justice Segara has too many cases already. Then why was Segara appointed in the first place? Perhaps they mistook his deference to seniority in the hierarchy as servitude and pliancy. Unfortunately things went horribly awry for those who assumed that semuanya will be OK with him in charge. How wrong. Thus plans were set in motion to replace him, which was cleverly done, even if the new trial will definitely lack credibility to the outside world. At this point in time it is not what others think that matters to the behind-the-scene powers; it is to ensure that the defendant's case is quickly tried and 'justice dispensed.'

I wonder which other High Courts got even one extra Judicial Commissioner. Three JCs to Shah Alam to me sounds like part of a premeditated plan to bring forward the Razak Baginda case, nothing else. I can predict the outcome of this 'trial'. Can you?
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