The Shah Alam High Court was today shown a close-circuit television (CCTV) footage from Hotel Malaya which was taken during Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu's stay in the hotel last October.

Prosecution witness Loo Mow Chan, 50, the hotel's operations manager, was then asked to confirm if the footage was taken and recorded in the hotel by the CCTV system.

Loo agreed and also identified eight photographs taken from the footage, and confirmed that they were also taken from the hotel's CCTV footage.

The CCTV footage and eight photographs showed some people in various locations in the hotel.

The prosecution did not ask Loo to identify the people in the footage or the photographs.

The CCTV footage was to have been shown in court yesterday but technical glitches forced it to be adjourned to today.

Contradicting answers

During cross examination by the defence counsel, Loo was asked to clarify the discrepancies in the time and date found in the footage, to which the witness gave contradicting answers.

When questioned about the discrepancies, Loo initially admitted that he did not know which date corresponded to a particular CCTV still image that displayed different times when it was shown yesterday, and when it was shown today.

However, during re-examination by deputy public prosecutor Manoj Kurup, he explained that he thought today's time corresponded accurately to the said image.

Further questioning by the defence lawyers implied that the CCTV recordings have been tampered with.

Hasnal Redzua Merican, counsel for the second accused, corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, questioned on the date in the video footage which stated that the images were captured on Nov 11 last year.

However earlier Loo testified that he handed over the video footage to a police officer the day before, that is Nov 10 2006.

Loo could not explain the discrepancy.

No technical knowledge

The footage dated Nov 11, 2006 made a brief appearance at the beginning of the tape that was supposed to only have footage dated Oct 18 last year.

The witness also admitted that he did not have the technical expertise to explain why there was a discrepancy in the CCTV recording.

Two police officers, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 31, and Sirul, 36, are charged with the murder which allegedly took place between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20 last year.

The body of Altantuya was said to be blown up in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam, Selangor.

Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, 47, is charged with abetting the murder between 9.54am on Oct 18 and 9.45pm on Oct 19 last year in Kuala Lumpur.

All three face the death penalty if convicted. Hearing before justice Mohd Zaki Md Yasin continues after lunch.