Screenshots

UPDATED VERSION: 10:50hr 17:00hr June 4. The profile of the murder case has been 'blown up' a little with two three new developments this morning:

# 1 ) RM100m suit by deceased's family. Altantuya's family has filed a RM100 million civil suit against Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri (31), Korporal Sirul Azhar Umar (36), Abdul Razak Baginda (47) and the Malaysian Government.

# 2 ) Last-minute change in prosecution team. The AG's Chambers civil division head Tun Majid Tun Hamzah and DPP Manoj Kurup have taken over as prosecutors in the murder trial. Giving the court a short notice this morning, Tun Majid pleaded that he "was only informed of this yesterday in the evening when I was on my way home".

"I am not privy as to why," he told the court.

Subsequently, at the request of the prosecution, the Shah Alam High Court postponed the trial to June 18 to allow the new prosecution team more time to prepare its case. The prosecution had originally asked for one month of extra time but the Judge cut it to two weeks, taking into account that there are foreign witnesses present.

The case was previously handled by head of the Classified Cases Unit of the AG’s Chambers, Sallehuddin Saidin, and deputy public prosecutor Noreen Badaruddin.

# 3 ) Defence cousel related to Judge. Karpal Singh, who is holding a watching brief for Altantuya’s family, made an application for one of the defence lawyers, Hazman Ahmad, to be disqualified because he has family relations with the judge.

“Counsel Hazman Ahmad’s late wife was the niece of Mohd Zaki. Justice must not only be done but must seen to be done. He must be disqualified,” Karpal was quoted as saying in Malaysiakini.

Hazman, who is representing accused, Chief Inspector Azilah, said that while the facts are true it does not mean that the trial will be conducted unfairly. After deliberating for several minutes, the judge dismissed Karpal’s application.

ORIGINAL POSTING

A dark humour I heard many moons ago from a minister in Putrajaya.

A VIP was stalked by an out-of-wedlock lady. A multipurpose disposal expert was called in. The only identity of the woman was a stamp-sized photo that man normally kept in his wallet.

"Gambar kecil sangat, Boss. Tak jelas," the operative said.

"Just blow it up," answered the VIP coolly.

C4 plastic explosive was used... to 'blow it up'.

End of story, and the start of nightmare for some.

By the way, on an unrelated matter, the hearing of the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu starts today. A senior criminal counsel had advised me to hold my breath. It's the most colourful, intriguing high profile case he said he has ever seen in this country.

It will be one of the first cases to be heard by Justice Mohd Zaki Md Yasin since his elevation from being a judicial commissioner just recently.

Meanwhile, Rocky's Bru has an advisory for bloggers, himself included, who wanted to comment on the on-going trial... read on.