Author Archives: Americk Sidhu

In the last sequel we saw how Sirul anticipated the worst and fled the country before the Federal Court could throw him back in jail again to face the hangman’s noose. In mid 2014, Sirul first fled to Thailand to seek refuge. This is when he hatched a plot to demand money in exchange forContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 12 – THE BACKGROUND BEHIND SIRUL’S ESCAPE”

Fortuitously, or with a certain amount of foresight, Sirul managed to skip the country before the prosecution’s appeal was heard before the Federal Court. Perhaps he, or his lawyers, had a premonition. Malaysian lawyers know appeals are totally unpredictable. Whilst Sirul was lying low, holed up with his son in Ipswich, Queensland, the Malaysian policeContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 11 – SIRUL’S ESCAPE”

On the 13 January 2015, the Federal Court delivered its decision in the appeal brought by the prosecution against the order acquitting Azilah and Sirul made by the Court of Appeal in 2013. The Judges of the Federal Court felt the Court of Appeal was wrong. They reinstated the convictions and sentences passed on bothContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 10 – THE FEDERAL COURT REVERSAL”

Azilah and Sirul’s appeals to the Court of Appeal against their convictions and sentences were heard in June 2013. The panel of Judges who heard these appeals were, Apandi Ali (the head of the panel). Linton Albert and Tengku Maimun (the present Chief Justice).Interestingly, Kitson Foong, the lawyer who had previously represented Sirul was toContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 9 – AZILAH AND SIRUL’S APPEAL”

In early May 2011, Bala was contacted by someone called ‘Siva’ who apparently was very close to the powers that be. Siva had been designated the task of finding out from Bala whether he would agree to meet a Minister to discuss SD1, for reasons not ascertained at that stage. Bala agreed to this outContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 8 – A TEMPORARY DIGRESSION”

The intervening period between the decision of the High Court convicting Azilah and Sirul, and the eventual appeal against their convictions (heard in 2013), saw interesting developments take place, in more ways than one. Bala’s revelations In November 2009, Bala came out of hiding and informed the world of the manner in which he wasContinue reading “DELEGATUS NON POTEST DELEGARE PART 7 – DEEPAK STRIKES BACK”

While the Altantuya murder trial was proceeding in the High Court in Shah Alam, the disgruntled first prosecution witness, P Balasubramaniam, was becoming less than enchanted with the way the trial was being conducted. This, of course, explains the purpose of the statutory declaration (SD1), which Bala, a private investigator, released to the press onContinue reading “Delegatus non potest delegare 6: The Bala saga begins”

It is not intended to burden the reader with the bland and monotonous details of the trial and the testimony of formal witnesses called for the prosecution. The Malaysian public was left in no doubt as to who had “done it” even before the trial started. They were more interested in why those who hadContinue reading “Delegatus non potest delegare 5: The trial”

The long-anticipated trial of the century was eventually scheduled to begin on June 4, 2006, but sputtered to an immediate halt because the prosecution team was changed at the very last moment. The defence teams suffered the same predicament, but over a period of time, pre-trial. There appeared to be much confusion among the counselContinue reading “Delegatus non potest delegare 4: Pre-trial positioning”

t is surprising that Azilah Hadri has as yet to produce a complete retraction of the contents of his statutory declaration despite more than 24 hours having elapsed since he released it. This may be due to the fact that he has no access to outsiders and vice-versa.  He is safe for the time being, but hisContinue reading “Delegatus non potest delegare 3: The investigations”