PUTRAJAYA: The Appeals Court here yesterday ordered that the ongoing murder trial of cosmetics millionairess Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three other individuals be temporarily stayed.
The trial is to be stayed pending disposal of an appeal brought by the four accused who are facing the murder charge, against a High Court’s decision in setting aside the subpoena issued by them against three deputy public prosecutors (DPPs) conducting the prosecution of their case, to take the stand as witnesses.
With the stay order being granted, the trial which is scheduled for hearing tomorrow, has been put on hold for the time being until the appeal is heard by the Appeals Court and disposed off.
A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Seri Abu Samah Nordin unanimously allowed the applications brought by the four accused for an interim order to stay the trial pending disposal of their appeal.
Justice Abu Samah said if the stay was not granted, the defence in the murder trial would be denied of the witnesses they sought to call which would then deny them of a fair trial and cause a miscarriage of justice.
Justice Abu Samah said the defence had the right to choose which witnesses it wanted to call to the witness stand,
and deputy public prosecutor Manoj Kurup had conceded so.
Last Monday (July 23), the High Court rejected the four accused’s application to subpoena DPPs Ishak Mohd Yusoff, Saiful Edris Zainuddin and Idham Abd. Ghani, to appear as witnesses.
The move to call the DPPs as witnesses was made by the defence in the trial in seeking to expunge two exhibits presented by the three DPPs at the end of the prosecution’s case in an attempt to discredit two farm workers, U Suresh and K. Sarawanan, who were called as prosecution witnesses in the trial but had allegedly turned hostile.
The two exhibits were notes of proceedings at the Telok Datok magistrate’s court where Suresh and Sarawanan pleaded guilty to a charge of disposing of evidence related to the murder and sentenced to seven years’ jail each.
The three DPPs were also involved in the proceedings at the Telok Datok magistrate’s court.
Suresh, 28, and Sarawanan, 21, are now serving 20 years’ imprisonment in Sungai Udang Prison, Melaka, after the Appeals Court on Aug 24 last year refused to grant them leave to appeal to the Appeals Court against a High Court’s decision in enhancing their jail term.
The four accused N.Pathmanabhan, a former lawyer, and three farm workers T. Thilaiyalagan, R.Matan, and R.Kathavarayan, have been ordered to enter their defence on a charge of murdering Sosilawati, 47, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and Sosilawati’s driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44.
They are charged with committing the murders at Ladang Gadong, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.
Earlier, the Shah Alam High Court had postponed to today the hearing of the case.
Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir made the decision after being informed by Ishak about the developments at the Appeals Court. — Bernama