This came about after lawyer Salim Bashir informed a three-member Court of Appeal bench today that the appeal of the five linked to “Kumpulan Viki Naidu” had been fixed on Jan 31.

“Today’s stay application is withdrawn as the appeal will be heard next month, ahead of the trial of the five scheduled to resume on April 25,” he said.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Zain Ibrahim, who appeared for the public prosecutor, did not object to the application.

Bench chairman Kamaludin Md Said, who sat with M Gunalan and Hashim Hamzah, then struck out the application filed by V Vigneswaran Naidu, D Ganesan, P Velmurugan, D Enthiran and K Ganesen.

Last month, the Court of Appeal allowed an interim order to stay the trial to allow the prosecution to file an affidavit in reply to the application.

Trial judge Su Tiang Joo of the Ipoh High Court disqualified Charan Singh, the lawyer representing the five, on the grounds that he had asked questions that suggested he could be a potential witness.

The five filed an appeal against Su’s decision.

Su said Charan would be in conflict of interest and in breach of Rule 28 of the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978. The rule states that a lawyer cannot appear in a case where he/she is a witness.

Ten men, including the five, are facing charges which carry a maximum 20-year jail term. Initially, eight of them were denied bail as it was a security offence.

However, Su granted eight of them bail of RM30,000 each in two sureties, and ordered that they be fitted with an electronic monitoring device.

They were also ordered to surrender their passports to the court and were prohibited from communicating with witnesses until the disposal of the case.