KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim accused the Syariah court today of being politically manipulated and for blundering in rejecting his application to prosecute his former aide for making a false accusation of sodomy against him.
The opposition leader is appealing against a decision to dismiss his application for qazaf, or false accusation, in the Syariah court.
The PKR de facto leader filed an amendment today to his notice of appeal over his qazaf appeal to compel the prosecution to charge Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
“The Syariah prosecutor failed to fulfil their duty because of political instructions and did not prosecute based on my report,” he said.
The amendment was over the word “keseluruhan” which means overall, which was omitted in the appeal notice.
“The technical issues to me are not important because it’s the core issue, why did the prosecutor refuse to prosecute in such a clear-cut case?
“I am disappointed because the judiciary system, the Syariah court itself, has been used for political agenda,” Anwar (picture) said.
He added that to his knowledge, the prosecution team had prepared a case to charge Saiful, and yet the process had been interrupted.
“So when you come to a stage like in this country where the Syariah court can be used and manipulated by the political forces, then it’s a sad stage for this country because not only are the courts in question, but the Syariah court is deemed to be ineffective, a stooge of the political masters,” he said.
Accompanying him were his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and his lead counsel for qazaf, Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman.
Anwar, 63, had on April 23 filed the appeal after the Syariah High Court dismissed his application to initiate qazaf proceedings against Saiful.
On May 14, Federal Territory chief Syariah prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain, FT Religious Department director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom, as the applicants, had applied to strike out Anwar’s appeal on the grounds that his notice of appeal was defective.
On January 7, Anwar had applied to the Syariah High Court to compel the trio, who he had named as the respondents, to initiate prosecution proceedings against Mohd Saiful, citing that the latter had made false sodomy accusations about Anwar.
On February 9, the respondents had filed a preliminary objection against Anwar’s qazaf application, citing that the the Syariah High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear an alleged sodomy case as this came under the purview of the civil criminal court.
Anwar is currently facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life.
The former deputy prime minister is charged with sodomising Saiful at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara here between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
Anwar has denied the charge, describing it as “evil, frivolous lies by those in power” when the charge was read out to him. He is charged under section 377B of the Penal Code and can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years’ jail and whipping upon conviction. The trial is taking place 18 months after Anwar was charged in court in August 2008.
He was charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he was sacked from the Cabinet and was later convicted and jailed for both offences. He was freed in September 2004 and later resurrected his political career by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008, which had been held in the interim by his wife.
He had two years ago led the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.
courtesy of Malaysian Insider
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