New twist in murder trial of model

The Straits Times, June 8, 2007
By Carolyn Hong, Malaysia Bureau Chief

Father of Mongolian victim applies to have one of the defence lawyers removed


KUALA LUMPUR - IN YET another development in the sensational murder trial of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, her father yesterday applied to the court to remove a lawyer representing one of the two policemen charged with killing her.

Psychology lecturer Shaariibuu Setev, 55, filed the application through his lawyer Karpal Singh, who had been granted permission by the High Court to hold a watching brief for the Mongolian family and government.

Mr Shaariibuu wanted lawyer Hazman Ahmad to be disqualified because the latter's late wife was a niece of the trial's presiding judge, Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin.

Mr Hazman represents Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 31, who is charged together with Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 36, with shooting Ms Altantuya in the head twice and then blowing her body up with explosives last October.

Prominent political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who has close ties to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, is charged with abetting them.

Mr Karpal said the application to disqualify Mr Hazman was 'in the public interest, in the interest of the family of Altantuya, the deceased and the government of Mongolia'.

This development comes a day after Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail explained that he had replaced the original prosecutors for the trial at the 11th hour after learning that one of them, Mr Salehuddin Saidin, had played badminton with the trial judge.

That sudden change led judge Mohd Zaki to postpone the trial till June 18.

Yesterday was the second time that Mr Karpal brought up the relationship of Mr Hazman to the judge. When the trial opened on Monday, he had objected to the lawyer's presence as 'justice must be seen to be done'.

Mr Hazman then told the court he was not the only one who knew the judge; the lawyers representing Abdul Razak and Sirul were ex-prosecutors who had served under the judge, then in the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Datuk Mohd Zaki turned down Mr Karpal's request, and yesterday, the lawyer lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal.

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the private free-to-air TV3 station reported that Mr Shaariibuu wanted the case to be heard before Datuk K.N. Segara, the judge who had handled it before he was replaced by Datuk Mohd Zaki last year. The change was apparently to speed up the hearing because Datuk Mohd Zaki had fewer cases in his diary.

According to the TV3 report, Mr Shaariibuu felt that Datuk Segara was more experienced.

When contacted by The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Karpal's office indicated that they had not decided whether to apply to the court to change the presiding judge.