The 'false news' trial of labour rights activist Irene Fernandez has been postponed by a day as Deputy public prosecutor Abdul Rahman Mohd Redza was not in court this morning, due to a bereavement in the family.

Magistrate Juliana Mohamed, who approved the prosecution application to move the hearing to tomorrow afternoon, also announced that she may have to recuse herself from the case.

"I was transferred to the Law Revision Division at the Attorney-General's Chambers from Sept 1, 2001. I am directly answerable to the AG so I would like to see if there are any objections. If so, I will excuse myself from the case," she explained.

Responding, defence counsel M Puravalen asked if Juliana has been re-gazetted as the magistrate to the case.

She said the Federal Court would make a decision on the matter later today and that she would inform the parties concerned tomorrow, when the court sits again.

Fernandez is charged under Section 8A(2) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 for "maliciously publishing false news" after she released a memorandum at a press conference in August 1995 about alleged torture and deaths in the camps for illegal immigrants.

If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to RM20,000. She is currently on bail.

Witnesses arriving today

Responding to a question from the magistrate, Puravalen said the defence team would be bringing in two witnesses for the two-week period set for continuation of the trial. The duo is scheduled to arrive later today from Bangladesh.

Puravalen said the delay in arrival of the two former detainees at immigration camps here was due to difficulties in securing visas for them to enter the country.

"The witnesses will arrive this evening as the Malaysian High Commission only issued them with visas last Sunday. We were told on Jan 8, 2002 that the witnesses had problems getting their visas. We contacted the Foreign Affairs Ministry for assistance with regard to the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka," he added.

Puravelen added that the subpoenas issued by the court for the two witnesses on Dec 18 last year and copies of the documents were delivered to the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Malaysian diplomatic mission in Dhaka on the same day.

Fernandez's trial, which began in June 1996, is now the longest-running in Malaysian legal history.

Up till May 2001, when the case was last heard, the prosecution had called a total of 35 witnesses while four* witnesses had testified for the defence.

The latter four, who are Bangladeshi nationals, gave the court graphic details of their experience while in detention some eight years ago. These included testimony on alleged beatings by the police and on inmates being subjected to acts of sexual perversion.

The trial was then suspended due to the inability of the court to provide a Bengali interpreter for the testimony of other Bangladeshi witnesses.

* Note: It was pointed out on Jan 17, 2003, that the actual figure is 20. The error is regretted.