KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 ― PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim filed today a lawsuit to reverse his sodomy conviction, claiming that an alleged RM9.5 million payment to the prosecutor had denied his right to a fair trial.
Lawyer N. Surendran said his client Anwar now wants the courts to both quash his March 2014 conviction by the Court of Appeal and to also quash the Federal Court's subsequent upholding of the same conviction.
“The reason for it is that the existence of an allegation that RM9.5 million was paid to the prosecutor, we say in the application that therefore his right to fair trial was jeopardised and the conviction must be set aside,” he told reporters here after the lawsuit was filed.
The de facto PKR leader named the government of Malaysia as the respondent to the lawsuit.
While there are two other ongoing court cases that effectively seek Anwar's release from prison, Surendran explained that the lawsuit was filed due to new information that had recently surfaced.
“We are filing this now because this has just come up and this is why this is being filed on urgent basis. This is the latest information which came out recently on the RM9.5 million which was never available earlier in the other applications we have filed,” he said.
Surendran said Anwar's legal team had also this morning filed a certificate of urgency in order to get an earlier court date for this lawsuit.
Three of Anwar's daughters ― Nurul Nuha, Nurul Ilham and Nurul Iman ― were present, while his supporters also showed up in court today.
Nurul Nuha said Anwar's family maintained his innocence.
“He has been innocent from day one. Secondly he is denied a fair trial and thirdly, we want him to be released immediately,” she said.
In an affidavit to support this lawsuit, Anwar claimed that there was a breach of the Federal Constitution's Article 5(1) as he had purportedly “been deprived of a fair trial because of the employment of a prosecutor who had a substantial financial interest”.
Anwar said he is constitutionally entitled to a fair trial as an accused person, adding that this right includes “being prosecuted by counsel who is independent and uninfluenced by third parties through financial inducement”.
Anwar disputed minister Nancy Shukri's previous statement in Parliament that private lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was only paid RM1,000 by the government to lead its prosecution team at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court, insisting that the latter was paid a total of RM9.5 million by the prime minister in two separate tranches in September 2013 and February 2014.
Malay Mail Online is currently unable to independently verify the RM9.5 million claim and has contacted Shafee for a response.
Anwar was charged with sodomy for the second time in his career in 2008, but was acquitted after a long trial in 2012.
The Court of Appeal had on March 7, 2014, reversed the former deputy prime minister’s acquittal, and the Federal Court rejected Anwar's appeal on February 10, 2015, and upheld his conviction and five-year prison term.
Prisoners in Malaysia are typically allowed a remittance of their jail terms, where one-third of their jail term is taken off and they are given early release. For Anwar, that would mean he could walk out of prison in 2018, instead of having to serve the entire five-year jail term until 2020.
