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TwitterAnwar fails in bid to strike out Sodomy II
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — The High Court today rejected Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s application to strike out sodomy charges against him following allegations of an affair between a prosecutor and the star witness and complainant in the Sodomy II trial.
Anwar had filed the application on August 2 to have the charges against him dropped following allegations of an affair between Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and deputy public prosecutor Farah Azlina Latif.
Judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah, in his judgment, said the prosecution team had neither denied nor answered the defence’s affidavit concerning the alleged affair, hence whatever that is claimed by the defence will be considered as true.
“Seeing that there is no affidavit-in-reply from the respondents to deny what has been said by the applicant (Anwar) in his affidavit, the court must accept what has been said as the truth,” said Mohd Zabidin.
Mohd Zabidin, however, added that the affidavits by DPP Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and investigating officer Judy Pereira were sufficient enough to prove that Farah was not privy to investigation and trial documents, and that her role was only limited to taking down notes of trial proceedings.
“Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants the court to drop the charges against him... in his application he claimed Farah Azlina Latif has access to investigation papers, and had an affair with lead witness Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
“In the affidavit of the prosecution, the team did not deny or agree that there was an affair, but affirmed that Farah and Saiful had no access to these documents.
“From the explanation of both Judy and Hanafiah, it is reasonable to accept that even though Farah was a part of the prosecution team but because the prosecution team acts on a ‘need-to-know basis’ and seeing as Farah’s role is limited, therefore Farah had no access to any investigation papers, including any documents.
“The court finds no abuse of process evident here. Application is thereby rejected,” said Mohd Zabidin.
The judge also said that since Farah was not responsible in conducting the interrogation of witnesses, there would be no “influence” on the part of Saiful on Farah as a result of the “affair”.
“In this situation I am of the opinion that any influence SP1 (Saiful) has over Farah as a result of their relationship cannot possibly affect the prosecution team to the point that it will compromise the integrity and fairness of the prosecution team,” he said.
Anwar’s lead counsel Karpal Singh said the defence team would be filing a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya later today.
The prosecution team as well as the Attorney-General’s Chambers have denied Anwar’s claims, stating that Farah’s role in the prosecution team was just to record court proceedings and take notes.
Solicitor-General II Datuk Yusof Zainal Abiden has also maintained that Farah had no access to trial documents ever since the trial started early this year.
Farah has since been dropped from the prosecution team.
Fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin kick-started the affair rumours in a posting on his Malaysia Today website two weeks ago, claiming that Saiful and Farah were involved in a sexual relationship.
Anwar, the 63-year-old PKR de facto leader, is charged with sodomising Saiful at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara here between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
The former deputy prime minister has denied the charge, describing it as “evil, frivolous lies by those in power” when the charge was read out to him. He is charged under section 377B of the Penal Code and can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years’ jail and whipping upon conviction.
The trial is taking place 18 months after Anwar was charged in court in August 2008.
Anwar was charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he was sacked from the Cabinet and was later convicted and jailed for both offences.
He was freed in September 2004 and later resurrected his political career by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008. The seat had been held in the interim by his wife.
He had earlier led the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.
The trial will continue shortly with the cross-examining of Hospital Kuala Lumpur general surgeon Dr Mohd Razali Ibrahim, one of the doctors who had examined Saiful on July 28, 2008 shortly after Saiful had lodged a police report claiming that he had been sodomised.
But Karpal told the court that the defence wanted time to file an application for a stay of proceedings pending the appeal against Mohd Zabidin’s decision this morning.
“Give us time, my lord. Why this unholy haste? We are asking what we are entitled to. We don’t beg, we are demanding... what Anwar is entitled to is to apply for application of stay.”
Another lawyer in Anwar’s legal team, Sankara Nair, confirmed the matter to The Malaysian Insider via SMS.
“We will file notice of appeal and also same time an application for a stay of this proceedings by 1pm,” Sankara told The Malaysian Insider.
The trial will resume at 2.15pm to give time for the defence team to file the application for a stay.
MI
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