PUTRAJAYA, Oct 30 — The Court of Appeal acted hastily when it delivered its guilty verdict on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim within just two days, a lawyer for the Opposition Leader told the Federal Court today.

In contrast, the Federal Court hearing for Anwar’s appeal against the decision is now into its third day, lawyer Ramkarpal Singh pointed out during submissions.

“Court of Appeal heard both sides and [Anwar was] convicted within two days,” the lawyer told the court.

“Here we are into our third day, and we haven’t even finished one side of the story … Did we get a fair trial?” he asked, referring to the hearing back in March.

Ramkarpal also questioned the testimonies given previously by government chemists Dr Nor Aidora Saedon and Dr Seah Lay Hong during the Sodomy II trial, claiming that they were biased towards the prosecution and were “evasive” with their answers.

The lawyer claimed that the chemists had appeared very willing to “speculate” on matters relating to seminal stains, even when the topics were beyond their expertise .

However, they were not willing to do the same for the defence, said Ramkarpal.

“[They do] not want to speculate for defence but speculated freely for prosecution,” said Ramkarpal.

Ramkarpal was the fourth lawyer in Anwar’s defence team to submit in court.

Anwar was held overnight from July 16 to 17, from 11.05pm to 12.30pm, in 2008, after being arrested for allegedly sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Samples taken from the toothbrush, mineral water bottle and “good morning” towel that were given to Anwar during his jail stint were later used to match the DNA samples taken from Saiful.

During trial in 2011, government chemist Nor Aidora had testified that there were two DNA profiles found on the evidence samples – that of “Male Y” and that of an unknown DNA profile.

The chemist had also testified that the DNA profiles found on the items match those whose sperm extracts had been found on Saiful’s anus earlier.

The Federal Court is hearing today Anwar’s challenge of the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn a lower court’s decision to acquit him of the charge.

The High Court had in 2012 acquitted Anwar of the 2008 charge but the appellate court ruled on March 7 this year that the trial judge had erred when rejecting the DNA evidence produced in the case.

Anwar has repeatedly maintained his innocence, insisting that the charges were trumped up to kill his political career as he allegedly poses a threat to the Barisan Nasional coalition’s decades-long rule with the Pakatan Rakyat alliance, which he now leads.

If Anwar fails to reverse his five-year imprisonment sentence and conviction in the Federal Court, he would lose his seat as the law bars anyone fined RM2,000 or imprisoned for one year from serving as a lawmaker.

Today’s hearing is presided over by a five-member panel led by Chief Justice Tun Ariffin Zakaria. Others include Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Embong, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar and Datuk Ramly Ali, who replaced Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop.

Anwar is represented by a 14-man defence team led by former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram. Others include lawyers R. Sivarasa, Latheefa Koya, N. Surendran and Gobind Singh Deo.

Lawyers from the prosecution team are Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria.

The hearing is expected to extend until next week.