The 13-year court battle of migrant workers activist Irene Fernandez will proceed as scheduled on Oct 28, even though documents relating to her appeal case may be incomplete.

irene fernandez trial 100908 03 Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamad Apandi Ali said th e hearing for Fernandez’s appeal will kick off on Oct 28 to 30 and continue on Nov 24 to 28 .

The compiled documents amounting to 3,648 pages were divided into eight volumes.

Nevertheless, these did not include the list of exhibits essential to the appeal, said Fernandez’s lawyer M Puravalen.

Puravalen told the court that since the documents were provided only this morning, the lawyers would not be able to cross-examine all eight volumes.

They also noticed that the list of exhibits was missing and needed time to check all the volumes thoroughly.

Justice Apandi nevertheless told the lawyers to cross-examine the typed and the handwritten notes by themselves.

He also said that if any of the documents were incomprehensible or incomplete, they would have to re-submit based on merits of the case or on the appeal records.

Judge wants to end case by this year

The judge further said he did not want to put off the case till a later date “due to ineligible or incomplete notes”.

“I want to dispose of this case within this year,” said justice Apandi.

The Tenaganita executive director’s first mention date on Jun 11 was postponed to Aug 5, because papers with statements of important prosecution witnesses went missing .

On Aug 5, the case was once again put to a standstill when Fernandez was told a computer virus had wiped out a portion of a specific volume of notes required for the trial.

irene fernandez case kl high court 110608 irene and puravalen Fernandez, 62, was sentenced to 12-month imprisonment in 2003 after being found guilty by the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court of maliciously publishing false news. She was allowed bail pending appeal.

In 1995, Fernandez exposed the poor conditions at immigration detention centres in a memorandum entitled ‘Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres'.

She was arrested and charged under Section 8A (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 a year later.

The maximum penalty on conviction is three years' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding RM20,000, or both.

The appeal mention date was postponed three times previously, due to several technical glitches since April, when papers containing her appeal against her imprisonment went missing.

Her case has become the longest-running trial in Malaysian history.