The decision to acquit and discharge Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu will go before the Federal Court.

The prosecution had filed its notice of appeal against the Court of Appeal decision last Friday, the same the judgment was delivered.

Deputy solicitor-general II Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah confirmed this in a text message to Malaysiakini , saying the notice of appeal had been filed.

NONE “The notice (of appeal) has been filed on the same day as the decision,” Tun Majid ( right ) said.

Azilah and Sirul Azhar were freed by the Court of Appeal after Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, the third member in the quorum, ruled there were serious misdirections by the Shah Alam High Court judge who heard the case.

This included the non-calling of Najib Abdul Razak’s aide-de-camp DSP Musa Safri, who allegedly informed political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda that he would send someone to assist him with the Altantuya matter.

Tun Majid had said last Friday said the prosecution would appeal the decision.

Normally, in criminal cases, the losing party can file its notice within 14 days of the judgment delivery.

Tun Majid said following the filing of the notice, the prosecution would wait for the court to provide the appeal records before the petition of appeal is filed.

“We have 10 days to file the petition of appeal,” he said. The petition will outline the grounds of the appeal against the Court of Appeal decision.

NONE Yesterday, the Court of Appeal released its 47-page judgment in which inconsistencies in evidence given by the police witnesses and cell phone operators were raised as some of the grounds for which it concluded that it was not safe to uphold the High Court verdict of guilty in the murder of Altantuya.

“The circumstantial evidence was insufficient and not strong enough to sustain the finding of guilt.

“We are conscious that a heinous crime has been committed, but where the guilt of the appellants had not been satisfactorily proved, we are constrained to give the benefit of the doubt to the appellants,” Justice Tengku Maimun ruled.

There has been an uproar over the acquittal of the two Special Action Unit squad members. Earlier, the High Court had also acquitted political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda with abetting to the murder.

The prosecution did not appeal that decision on grounds that the court had made a finding that was non-appealable.

Asked about  former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim's position that the Court of Appeal should have ordered a re-trial of the case, Tun Majid declined to comment.