KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers today continued to cast doubt on a government scientist’s DNA profiling report, claiming that it failed to include two more unknown DNA profiles.
“It seems like half a football team’s DNA is found but you chose not to report it,” defence counsel Ramkarpal Singh said today.
He accused forensic scientist Dr Seah Lay Hong of failing to comply with basic international guidelines of DNA profiling, saying that the chemist report was “biased”.
The lawyer said that despite graph readings which showed two more unknown DNA profiles in Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s lower rectum and on his black trousers, Dr Seah did not put it in the chemist report.
The forensic scientist has so far agreed that there were three DNA profiles involved in the case — that of Male Y, an unknown DNA profile and Saiful’s.
When asked why she did not report it, Dr Seah merely said that she did not find the readings “significant”.
“The reading not reported although it had a high reading,” argued Ramkarpal.
The fiery lawyer spent a good part of the morning’s cross-examination today in questioning the credibility of the chemist report prepared by Dr Seah.
He claimed that the chemist report was inconsistent, saying that Dr Seah had failed to comply with guidelines set by the International Society of Genetic Forensics.
“She has failed to follow crucial guidelines... I am going on guidelines here. I have suggested to her certain scenarios which paint a different picture from what she has suggested,” Ramkarpal told reporters later.
The trial will resume at 2 this afternoon with further cross-examination of the prosecution witness.
Saiful had complained that Anwar, his ex-boss, had sodomised him at a luxury condominium in upper-class Bukit Damansara here on June 26, 2008.
Saiful, now aged 25, has never named anyone else.
Anwar, the 63-year-old PKR de facto leader, is currently facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life.
He 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 led the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008. - Malaysian Insider
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