In November last year, the Court of Appeal fixed March 3 to hear the appeals, but the date has now been vacated as two of the appellants have yet to file their petitions of appeal.
Lawyer Jasmine Cheong, who is appearing for former military doctor R Kunaseegaran, said the two appellants were R Dinishwaran and S Ravi Chandran.
FMT understands that Dinishwaran has engaged a new counsel who needs time to study the appeal records, while Ravi Chandran’s lawyer, who was appointed last year, is in the midst of filing his petition of appeal.
The remaining appellants filed their written grounds of appeal after obtaining appeal records from the court early last year.
“We were informed that a hearing date cannot be fixed until all of the petitions of appeal are filed since the six were jointly tried,” Cheong told FMT after case management before deputy registrar Khairi Haron today.
The appeals have been fixed for further case management on April 11.
The Court of Appeal did not strike out the duo’s appeal despite the delay as the appellants are subject to the death sentence.
AK Thinesh Kumar, M Vishwanath and S Nimalan were also convicted of murdering Morais on Sept 4, 2015 between Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul in Kuala Lumpur and 1, Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya.
Morais had been reported missing on Sept 4, 2015. He was seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta, Kuala Lumpur, in his car.
His body was eventually found in an oil drum filled with cement at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, 12 days later.
In his decision, then High Court Justice Azman Abdullah held that all the six men had a common intention to kill Morais.
The trial commenced in January 2016 with 70 witnesses testifying during the prosecution stage.
The verdict in the High Court on July 10, 2020 came at the conclusion of one of the country’s longest murder trials, which had been delayed for a host of reasons, including changes to counsels representing the accused.
In December 2020, FMT reported that the appeal process had stalled because the trial judge had yet to furnish his written grounds.
According to a court practice direction, a trial judge must prepare the grounds of judgment within eight weeks of the appellant filing an appeal.