Sodomy 2 - Prejudge, bias-no respect for the rule of law...

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has cried foul that the court is allegedly not giving him a fair trial, citing police preventing his lawyers from interviewing potential defence witnesses and the court pre-judging him in ruling complainant Saiful Bukhari a truthful and credible witness even before hearing his testimony.

Anwar (left) also denied that his unsuccessful attempt to recuse trial judge justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, his third, was a delay tactic by his team.

"All I want is a fair trial which I am entitled to, but so far it has not been accorded to me," he said.

"The judge has pre-judged against me in ruling the complainant as a truthful and credible witness. This is despite the court having yet to witness what I have to say in my defence," he said.

Anwar, who is Permatang Pauh MP, said these legal issues were fundamental in any legal system worldwide.

"This is a blatant disregard of the law for which I am entitled to, that is a fair trial," he said.

Cops only facilitated 5 witnesses

Anwar said throughout the three week break since the judge's decision to call his defence, his team of lawyers had applied to interview 25 witnesses from the prosecution's list, of which they only managed to interview five.

He said one cannot expect him to take the stand without having all these witnesses interviewed first. The defence had applied for prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor to be among the defence witnesses.

The prosecution had given the defence a list of 71 witnesses to choose from, of which lead counsel Karpal Singh and lawyer Sankara Nair said they had wanted to call 25. The list included the 27 witnesses whom the prosecution had called in the first portion of the trial.

The police, who was supposed to facilitate their meeting with the requested witnesses, only supplied them with five, none of whom were material witnesses,said Karpal.

source:malaysiakini