Waving her hands wildly, Ms Uuriintuya Gal-Orchir, 30, shouted down prosecutors and defence lawyers who tried to stop her tirade claiming that Malaysian officials deleted the immigration records.

She said she was told by officials that there was no record that she, slain Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and their friend Namiraa Gerelmaa entered the country on Oct 8 last year.

This revelation came as Ms Uuriintuya was concluding her testimony, and the judge asked her when she left Malaysia following Ms Altantuya's disappearance on Oct 19 last year. Ms Altantuya's remains were found a month later in a jungle clearing in Selangor.

Rumours had circulated before the trial started that records of Ms Altantuya's entry into Malaysia had been deleted, but yesterday's mention in court was the first time the matter was officially brought up.

The three women had allegedly come to Malaysia to track down Ms Altantuya's prominent ex-lover, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who is now charged with asking two policemen to kill her.

Abdul Razak, a close associate of Deputy Premier Najib Tun Razak, had admitted to having an affair with Ms Altantuya which ended in August 2005. He claimed that she hounded him for money after that.

Ms Uuriintuya told the court that Ms Namiraa left the country a week after Ms Altantuya disappeared.

But she herself could not leave as she had left her passport with Ms Altantuya, and it was only on Nov 24 that she managed to arrange for a flight.

She was planning to fly home with Dr Shaariibuu Setev, Ms Altantuya's father, who had gone to Malaysia after learning of his daughter's death.

But Ms Uuriintuya ran into problems at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport when the authorities could not find any record of her entry into Malaysia, or those of her two friends.

'They had destroyed it. Our entry was deleted from the immigration computer so there is no record of our entering Malaysia,' she told the court.

Ms Uuriintuya said two policemen questioned her for two hours on whether she entered Malaysia illegally, before allowing her to leave.

'We missed the plane, and later we found there was also no record of my entry in Beijing. I wonder why my record was deleted in Malaysia,' she shouted.

Lead prosecutor Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah and the defence lawyers protested repeatedly that this was irrelevant to the trial.

They asked for this part of her testimony to be deleted from court records but lawyer Karpal Singh, who is monitoring the trial for the Mongolian family and government, insisted it remain on record.

'It's important evidence, and we wonder why the records of three people were obliterated from the record,' he said.

Judge Mohd Zaki Md Yasin allowed it to stay on record eventually.

Meanwhile, Ms Uuriintuya also identified a silver watch, earrings and a ring worn by Ms Altantuya on the day she went missing, and was allegedly killed.

She said Ms Altantuya had told her the diamond ring was a present from her boyfriend, and she assumed that Ms Altantuya meant Abdul Razak.

Today, the court will hear the evidence of Mr Ang Chong Beng, a private detective hired by Ms Altantuya to track down Abdul Razak.

carolynh@sph.com.sg