The trial of Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez was postponed again today by magistrate Juliana Mohamad to May 8.

When court resumed this morning, the defence team represented by M. Moganambal asked for the hearing to be postponed to a later date as the interpreter for a defence Bangladeshi witness will not be available tomorrow.

Defence counsel M. Puravalen, who reported sick yesterday resulting in the trial being postponed to today, is still ill today.

Fernandez is being charged with "maliciously publishing false news" after she published a report in August 1995 about the abuses in camps for migrant workers.

The women rights activist faces three years in prison if convicted. She is currently out on bail.

The trial, which began in June 1996 has become the longest running trial in the country, entered its 224th day on Monday.

The hearing was postponed for more than a month as the court could not find an interpreter for the Bangladeshi defence witnesses.

The witness, Moron Mozumder s/o Krishna Gobinda, who was a former detainee of the Kemayan detention camp in Pahang, is scheduled to continue his testimony on May 8.

On Monday, Mozumder broke down while recalling his ordeal in the detention camp. He told the court that he was forced to strip naked upon arrival at the detention camp, kicked by the police and subsequently made to leap frog to the block in which he was detained.

Over a million migrants from countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh came to Malaysia in search for work. Thousands of the these migrants ended up in detention camps.

Some of them had entered the country illegal while some encountered some problems after disputes with their employers.