No proof of seminal stains, say Anwar’s lawyers

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — Defence lawyers in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II trial claimed today that there was no evidence of semen on Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s body as no proper tests were done to ascertain the matter.

Sankara Nair, who is one of Anwar’s lawyers, said although the laboratory results from Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) said that there was evidence of semen upon examination of Saiful, no standard tests were done to confirm it.

The lawyer told the court today that the chemist report did not take into account standard tests which must be conducted first to determine any presence of semen.

“There are standard tests, practised on an international level, such as PSA antigen and RSID that can give an accurate picture of evidence of semen,” he said.

On the stand was HKL forensic pathologist Dr Siew Sheue Feng.

Citing details of the chemist report, Sankara said the report had also stated that Saiful’s own semen stains were found on his underwear and trousers.

“How come this was not noted by you?” asked Sankara, to which Dr Siew admitted he did not note it down.

“The semen is not confirmed as no tests were done to actually prove whether there was any semen at all. The entire chemist report, if it says there were seminal stains found on Saiful, must show tests for it,” Sankara told reporters later.

Dr Siew was once again the target of Anwar’s lawyers as the defence team took great pains to cast doubt on his credibility as a witness.

Sankara claimed that there was a possibility that there could be tampering of evidence as currently there was no way to tell if the containers with samples taken from Saiful had been opened.

Dr Siew insisted that he and the hospital operated in a “fair and unbiased” manner.

The forensic pathologist disagreed with Sankara on many accounts today, and maintained that there was no way the containers with Saiful’s samples could have been tampered with.

“At this point, we only have to create doubt in the credibility the witness and the evidence,” Sankara told reporters.

Dr Siew is scheduled to be cross-examined again by Anwar’s lawyers at 2pm.

Anwar, the 62-year-old PKR de facto leader, is facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life.

The former deputy prime minister is charged with sodomising former aide Mohd 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 three years ago led the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008. - Malaysian Insider