Prosecution appeal hits snag as cop acquitted of Altantuya murder goes missing

A much delayed appeal ... a criminal appeal would not proceed if the respondent was absent. The public prosecutor would apply for a warrant of arrest from the appellate court to locate the respondent and bring him to court. If this failed, the court will strike out the public prosecutor's appeal.

Putrajaya's appeal before the Federal Court in the high-profile murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu may have hit a snag as one of the two policemen acquitted of the crime has reportedly gone missing, say sources.

Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar walked out a free man after his appeal against the High Court conviction was set aside last August.

Since then, the policeman has not contacted his lead counsel Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, who represented him during trial and in the Court of Appeal, the sources said.

But Kamarul told The Malaysian Insider that he was still on record as representing Sirul in the Federal Court "until and unless notified on the contrary".

The lawyer declined comment when asked whether he had contacted Sirul or if the former policeman had contact the lawyer on instructions to retain him as counsel in the Federal Court.

However, lead counsel Datuk Azman Ahmad, who is appearing for Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, said his client had given the nod to retain the same lawyers.

Azman said the Federal Court served him a copy of the public prosecutor's petition of appeal early this month.

Both Sirul and Azilah are still under suspension from the police force. They were previously commandos with Bukit Aman's Special Action Squad.

Lawyers well versed in criminal procedures said it was best for counsel to obtain consent from the client to determine if their services were still needed.

"Clients may want to change their lawyers and that is their right. Lawyers cannot assume that clients want to retain their services," said a counsel who declined to be identified.

Normally, a criminal appeal would not proceed if the respondent was absent.

The public prosecutor would apply for a warrant of arrest from the appellate court to locate the respondent and bring him to court. If this failed, the court will strike out the public prosecutor's appeal.

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An example is the case in November 2010 where the Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal of two former bodyguards of a businessman accused of murdering a Chinese teenager.

On September 20, 2005, the High Court freed Resty Agpalo, Mohamad Najib Zulkifli and businessman Koh Kim Teck of the murder of Koh’s nephew, student Xu Jian Huang, 14, at a bungalow in Jalan Mengkuang, off Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, in 2004.

The court had earlier struck out the prosecution’s appeal against Koh’s acquittal following its (the prosecution’s) failure to produce the businessman in court on several occasions.

Since Koh could not be located and was acquitted, both Resty and Najib were also freed.

During the 36-day trial, the prosecution’s case was that the boy was tortured and then murdered for stealing RM30,000 belonging to his uncle.

In Altantuya's case, the public prosecutor filed its petition of appeal on January 3 by revealing in detail, the grounds it intended to pursue to reverse the acquittal of Sirul and Azilah.

Among them is that the conviction of the two police commandos should remain intact even without the testimony of the prime minister's aide-de-camp, DSP Musa Safri, as he was only a peripheral figure in the case.

The Court of Appeal had ruled on August 23, 2013 that the prosecution's failure to call Musa had weakened Putrajaya's case against the two cops.

The prosecutors had listed five other reasons the three-man Court of Appeal bench was wrong, in law and facts, to allow the cops to escape the gallows.

The policemen had been found guilty of murdering Altantuya at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10pm on October 19, and 1am on October 20, 2006.

Both were convicted and sentenced to death but on August 23, 2009, the Court of Appeal allowed their appeal and set them free because of a lack of evidence.