Solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden (left) informed the High Court in Kuala Lumpur of this today.
"According to (DPP Mohd) Hanafiah (Zakaria's) affidavit they refused to come as they are not material witnesses to the charge," Yusof said.
"Hence, they will only come if they are subpoenaed as witnesses."
The non-committal attitude of the witnesses has left Anwar's defence in a bind, as he has already been handicapped by not getting the 71 statements recorded by the police from the witnesses, including those from Najib, Rosmah and Musa.
This follows the Federal Court decision that ruled that the Section 112 statements need not be provided to the defence.
Lawyer Sankara Nair told reporters outside court that they received the letter informing this on July 18.
"This has left us slightly blinded as without the Section 112 statements, we do not know what they told the police and now their decline to come to interviewed has put us in a bind.
"There are five who have already come forward when called to be interviewed," Sankara (right) said.
Yusof submitted that the defence should first provide a list of witnesses it wanted to be called for them to be subpoenaed.
Senior counsel Karpal Singh argued otherwise.
Karpal cited that an arrangement had been agreed upon initially, after defence is called, that the prosecution would be informed as to who is to be interviewed and it would be on the onus oof the prosecution to provide the witnesses.
The defence had argued that it needed to interview the witnesses offered by the prosecution to decide on who to call as witnesses.
The judge, Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, said he would deliver his decision on Monday, when Anwar is scheduled to take the stand to make his defence.
Anwar, 63, is charged with sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in a Desa Damansara condominium between 3pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
[More to follow]
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