Deputy public prosecutor Aida Khairuleen Azli informed a three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Kamaludin Md Said that a notice of withdrawal was filed on Aug 25.

Lawyer Simon Murali then applied to set aside an order to hold Aung Kyaw Saw in custody since the prosecution has discontinued its appeal.

It is normal practice for the prosecution to apply for such a warrant against foreigners from the court as they could abscond.

The lawyer also requested that the handcuffs on Saw be removed since he should no longer be restrained.

Kamaludin, who sat with Ahmad Nasfy Yasin and Hashim Hamzah, allowed the request.

Saw was alleged to have committed the offence on Tin Mar Moe, 20, at their flat in Bukit Mertajam at 7.30pm on May 26, 2017.

He was charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty upon conviction. Saw and Moe were workers at an electronics factory in Seberang Perai.

On April 30 last year, the High Court in Penang found that a witness statement and the forensic findings were vastly different, and that key evidence such as the murder weapon was not produced in court.

Judge Radzi Abdul Hamid said a witness statement by a factory bus driver had claimed that Saw held Moe by the neck and stabbed her with a knife once.

However, he said a pathologist testified that there were six stab wounds, two slash wounds and four abrasions on Moe’s body. The pathologist also said the victim had put up a fight before she was killed.

Radzi said that because of the incongruence of the evidence presented, it was not safe for the court to rely on the testimony of the bus driver.

He said evidential items such as a knife suspected to be used as the murder weapon and blood-soaked clothes were never sent for forensic testing for DNA and blood profiling.

Radzi said it was later revealed by an investigating officer that the evidence had gone missing from police custody.