PETALING JAYA, Aug 1 — The Court of Appeal today fixed September 17 and 18 for the hearing of the government’s appeal against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal in the Sodomy II case.

The court will also hear the defence’s application to recuse the government’s lead lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on those two days, Malaysiakini and Sin Chew Daily’s portal reported.

“We will file the application to recuse Shafee soon,” Anwar’s lawyer Ramkarpal Singh Deo was quoted saying by Malaysiakini.

On July 22, the prosecution announced that Shafee, a prominent Umno lawyer, would head their team, prompting objections from the defence who had argued that there was a conflict of interest.

In January last year, Anwar was found innocent of the charge that he sodomised former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at the Desa Damansara condominium in Kuala Lumpur on June 26, 2008.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah had then acquitted Anwar after ruling that DNA samples were tampered with.

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