A lawyer representing one of the acquitted policemen in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial has denied that Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar could not be detected.

J Kuldeep Kumar, who is one of the lawyers representing Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, said he was attending the mention of the case on behalf of lawyers Hasnal Rezua Merican and Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin.

“Since his lawyers are still the counsel of record, they must have received instructions from their client,” he said.

“As for my client, he is staying with his mother and leading a normal life again,” he added.

Kuldeep ( right ) and DPP Manoj Kurup were met today at the Federal Court registry as their case came up for case management.

They said the deputy registrar Izzuddin Mohamad, had fixed Thursday for further case management.

A news portal, The Malaysian Insider , had reported that Sirul Azhar could be missing.

This follows the refusal of Sirul's lawyers to comment if the corporal had decided to retain them as their counsel. Sirul hails from Perak while Azilah is from Sarawak.

Despite this, the solicitor on record for Sirul is Ahmad Zaidi Zainal.

Attempts by Malaysiakini to contact Ahmad Zaidi, at his law firm proved futile as he is not returning calls.

Manoj told reporters today that there were no papers served as the court have yet to fix a hearing date for the prosecution's appeal at the Federal Court.

Azilah and Sirul were both acquitted by the Court of Appeal last August after the court found there were serious misdirections by the trial judge in finding them guilty.

The misdirection included the prosecution's failure to call Najib Abdul Razak's then aide-de-camp DSP Musa Safri who brought the two accused into the picture, to handle Altantuya for political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

Justice Tengku Maimum Tuan Mat wrote in the judgment that it was unsafe to convict Sirul Azhar as he could have been framed .

Altantuya was murdered between 10pm to 1am on Oct 18, 2006 in a jungle near Puncak Alam, near Shah Alam.

The two police officers were convicted in April 9, 2009 by the Shah Alam High court while Abdul Razak was acquitted earlier without his defence being called.