Court of Appeal to hear prosecution appeal against Anwar sodomy acquittal

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 2 — The Court of Appeal has set two days from December 11 to hear an appeal by the prosecution against the acquittal of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over his sodomy charge, The Star reported today.

Court of Appeal president Justice Md Raus Sharif fixed the date for the appeal hearing after meeting the parties involved.

Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah acted as the lead prosecutor while Anwar was represented by his lead counsel Karpal Singh.

Muhammad Shafee has been appointed by the Attorney-General by fiat (authorisation) to lead the prosecution team in the appeal.

Speaking to reporters here, Muhammad Shafee said that he was not sure if the same panel who heard the two recusal applications would be hearing the merits of the appeal.

“We are not sure of the panel yet,” he told reporters here.

According to The Star, Court of Appeal judge Justice Ramly Ali (now elevated to be Federal Court judge), who chaired a three-man panel, allowed Anwar’s application on September 17 to recuse a judge from hearing the prosecution’s appeal.

With him in the panel then are Court of Appeal judges Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Justice Mohd Zawawi Salleh.

Karpal had applied to recuse Justice Tengku Maimun on the grounds that there was a likelihood of bias in view of her ruling at Anwar’s defamation suit against former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on July 9, 2007.

The Star reported that Muhammad Shafee was allowed by the appellate court on September 18 to be a deputy public prosecutor (dpp) in the prosecution’s appeal.

Justice Ramly held that the appointment of Muhammad Shafee as the deputy public prosecutor for the criminal appeal was valid and in accordance to various provisions of the law.

Anwar was acquitted by the High Court on January 9 last year for allegedly sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, his former aide, at Desa Damansara Condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.

The Star reported that trial judge Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah had ruled that the court could not be 100 per cent certain, after going through the evidence, that the integrity of the DNA samples had not been compromised.

Justice Mohamad Zabidin said that as the crime was sexual, the court was reluctant to convict based entirely on Saiful’s testimony without corroboration, according to The Star.

The verdict ended a trial that lasted over two years, with 27 prosecution and seven defence witnesses called.