The Altantuya murder trial has been postponed to Jan 15 to give the defence lawyers time to interview witnesses.

Shah Alam High Court judge Mohamad Zaki Mohamad Yasin adjourned the matter today following an application from the lawyers representing elite police officers Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar.

razak baginda acquitted 311008 06 Azilah and Sirul had been ordered to enter therir defence on Oct 31 to a charge of murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu in November 2006. Her body was blown up with explosives in a jungle clearing.

High-profile political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who was charged with abetting them, has been acquitted .

The prosecution took 151 days to adduce testimony by 84 witnesses before ending its case in September.

Azilah's lawyer Hazman Ahmad told the court that, since the prosecution has taken over one and half years to end its case, the defence would also require some time to gather all the information needed.

Altogether nine witnesses, inclusive of one expert witness, will be called to testify in Azilah's defence, said Hazman.

Met outside the courtroom, Hazman revealed that an alibi defence would be submitted for Azilah, showing that he was never at the scene where the crime had allegedly taken place.

No response from Raja Petra

Sirul's lead counsel Kamarul Hisham also requested for more time as his key witnesses, blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and private investigator P Balasubramaniam, are still unavailable.

altantuya razak baginda murder 120707 kamarul hisham According to Kamarul, he had written to Raja Petra's lawyers on Oct 31 requesting an interview with the blogger while he was still detained under Internal Security Act (ISA).

However, no response was received even after his (Raja Petra) release on Nov 7, said Kamarul.

"We have called and left messages after messages and yet we have neither received any calls nor messages," he said.

"At this moment I would like to know what is his position - whether he wishes to be interviewed or not - and it is usually courtesy to inform a potential witness that we wish to interview him," said Kamarul.

Kamarul informed reporters that if all efforts fail, they will have to look into asking the court to issue a subpoena to Raja Petra to compel him to testify.

He added that since Balasubramaniam's whereabouts remain unknown, the defence will call Raja Petra first to testify about his June 18 statutory declaration which also implicated Rosmah Mansor, wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. Both Najib and Rosmah have denied any such involvemen.

Kamarul further said that more witnesses may be called if Raja Petra reveals the sources of the contents of his statutory declaration.

Private eye's statutory declaration

Quizzed about the importance of the statutory declaration, Kamarul said "the contents are clear... I would not speculate at this moment outside court as it to how relevant it is to the defence".

In the matter of missing private investigator Balasubramaniam, Kamarul said he has no clue about his whereabouts but remains optimistic that he will reappear.

p balasubramaniam private investigator altantuya murder case Balasubramaniam on July 1 had caused turmoil after filing an explosive statutory declaration. In his first declaration , he linked Najib to Altantuya, alleging that the duo had an affair.

A day after this was made public, Balasubramaniam made a second statutory declaration professing that the first had been made under duress and stated that all allegations concerning the deputy premier were inaccurate .

Following this he had reportedly fled the country with his wife and three children.

Judge Mohamad Zaki gave both the defence counsel until Jan 15 to conclude the interviews.

As other cases are scheduled concurrently, he said he would make the mornings available to deal with this matter.