By Debra Chong
PUTRAJAYA, Oct 23 — Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim failed today to block the prosecution's appeal against a High Court's order to grant him crucial evidence ahead of his Sodomy II trial from being heard at the Court of Appeal here.
Anwar filed the official objection yesterday, his lawyer Sankara Nair told The Malaysian Insider.
A three-man panel of judges, led by Datuk Hasan Lah, struck out Anwar's umpteenth bid to prevent the prosecution's case against him.
They also rejected his plea to postpone hearing the appeal, pending his appeal to the Federal Court.
Instead, the Court of Appeal judges ordered the prosecution, headed by Solicitor-General II Datuk Yusof Zainal Abiden to immediately argue his case on why he is unhappy with the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to award Anwar the evidence.
But lawyers for the opposition leader later told reporters that they are still under orders to stop the prosecution's appeal and will be filing an application to do just that at the Federal Court soon.
Earlier Anwar's team, led by Karpal Singh, told the appeals court that the prosecution's appeal cannot be allowed at this stage under the law because the High Court judge's order is not yet final and does not affect the events in the main case, which is the trial.
Karpal pointed out that the word “decision” as defined by the law limited its meaning to “judgment, sentence or order... that disposes the rights of the parties.”
He said that in Anwar's case so far, the High Court judge's “decision” was not yet final. If the prosecution was to appeal, it must wait until the trial proper was completed.
The prosecution disagreed.
Yusof argued that the High Court's decision has to be considered final to a certain degree because if the prosecution was forced to hand over the documents as ordered, the knowledge that was contained inside would be passed on to the defence team.
That knowledge, he stressed, cannot be returned.
However, the prosecution's arguments were cut short due to lack of time.
The Court of Appeal fixed next Friday morning to resume hearing the arguments from both sides.
Anwar, 62, was slapped with a sodomy charge for the second time in his career last year, just before he made his political come-back as the MP for Permatang Pauh in Penang.
The man who would be premier was convicted of sodomy in 2000 after a marathon trial that lasted over a year. He spent six years behind bars before the verdict was overturned.
If found guilty this time, Anwar will once again be sent to jail, effectively ending his once-meteoric career.
Sodomy, even when consensual, is classified as “sex against the order of nature” and is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
The PKR adviser maintains he is innocent and that the charges were cooked up to prevent his fledgling Pakatan Rakyat bloc from taking over the federal government.
He has also filed several separate suits to strike out the charges against him as well as to kick out the entire prosecution team.
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
Those have no evidence to bite people have to sent to jail plus fine plus loss the MP position.
Perak case can rule in court but Selangor case cannot rule in court .
Those copped cow heads no problem , those record the cow head video in trouble .
Those might be murdered , will become committed suicide
Those involved in money politic is not guilt's guilt ( new LAW's term invented by bolehland )
The citizebship is a gift but not a right for the people . Happy to give you that gift you will get . If not happy to give you even your have right to have it , so what , it is a gift not the right !!
Bermacam-macam-lah ... Cowboy show , Spider man show , Cow show , Bolehland semua pun ada .
Abang Anwar , aiyah...aiyah... kesian..... , sudah tua lagi nak masuk penjara