PETALING JAYA, Oct 12 – The sedition trial of Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin had to be postponed for the third time by the Sessions Court here today following the failure of the prosecution to execute a warrant of arrest on the blogger.
Judge Rozina Ayob in expressing her dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in the case, said it was due to be settled by the end of December.
The case, which was mentioned last year, had seen two postponements, in May and July because of Raja Petra’s absence.
Rozina then said this would be the final postponement and set Nov 11 as the new hearing date.
Earlier, when asked by Rozina on the police’s progress in tracing Raja Petra, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusuff said various efforts had been made, including enlisting the aid of Interpol in 186 countries, but they had not borne any fruit so far.
On May 6 2008, Raja Petra, 60, pleaded not guilty to committing sedition by posting an article entitled “Let’s Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell” on his www.malaysia-today.net website on April 25 2008.
Lawyer, J. Chandra, who is representing Raja Petra, had urged the court to grant his client a discharge not amounting to acquittal in view of the continued postponement but Ishak objected, saying it was unfair and prejudicial to the prosecution as several witnesses had already testified in the case.
“As such, we seek one final postponement,” Ishak implored. – Bernama
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