The "false news" trial of Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez is now re-scheduled for Nov 7 to allow for some inhouse exercise at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate court.

Magistrate Juliana Mohamed told both parties at an open-court mention this morning that all trials to be held in the magistrate courts from Oct 9 to Oct 20 have been postponed to enable a "file operations" exercise to be carried out.

The trial was earlier scheduled to resume on Oct 16 after its hearing last Friday.

Fernandez is being charged with "maliciously publishing false news" for releasing a memorandum about tortures and deaths in the illegal immigrants detention camps at a press conference in August 1995.

The women's rights activist and Keadilan supreme council member faces three years in prison if convicted. She is currently out on bail.

Deputy public prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman is expected to cross-examine Bangladeshi witness Zakir Hussein when the trial resumes.

In his testimony last week, Zakir, who is the third former detainee to testify, recounted several incidents of physical torture during his detention in the Semeyih illegal immigrants camp.

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