Anwar’s appeal to disqualify Shafee adjourned

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's appeal to disqualify top Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah from leading the prosecution team to overturn his acquittal for sodomy has been adjourned.

The appeal was initially supposed to be heard on November 7 but the Federal Court postponed proceedings to November 11 after it was informed that Shafee was away in Germany to seek medical treatment.

Anwar's lawyer Karpal Singh said he was notified about the matter by the Federal Court which had granted the postponement.

Karpal also filed the petition of appeal on Monday (November 4) stating the grounds why Anwar was appealing the Court of Appeal's unanimous decision on September 18 which allowed Shafee to lead the prosecution team which is attempting to overturn Anwar's sodomy acquittal.

A three-man bench, led by Datuk Ramly Ali, ruled that Shafee's appointment was correct under the Federal Constitution and Criminal Procedure Code.

Karpal, however, is disputing this.

He said the Court of Appeal judges were wrong in not concluding that Section 378 of the CPC prohibited a lawyer to appear on behalf of the public prosecutor.

The veteran lawyer pointed out that the court did not consider that Shafee was a potential witness in the sodomy trial and this had placed the lawyer to be in conflict with the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978.

Karpal had argued that Shafee's appointment was a nullity because Section 379 of the CPC, one of the sections under which he (Muhammad Shafee) was appointed, was no longer applicable.

He said that section had long not been in use and should be declared as obsolete under the doctrine of desuetude.

Shafee was appointed lead deputy public prosecutor by the Attorney-General by way of a "fiat" under Section 376(3) and Section 379 of the CPC and Article 145 of the Federal Constitution.

Whatever the outcome in the Federal Court, the public prosecutor's appeal against the acquittal of Anwar for sexual misconduct will be heard in the Court of Appeal for two days from December 11.

On January 9, last year, High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah acquitted Anwar, 66, for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, at a Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.

Meanwhile, the adjournment of Anwar's appeal drew sighs of frustration from Parti Keadilan Rakyat which had cancelled the opposition leader's trip to Australia where he was supposed to be part of the panel in the debate "God And His Prophets Should Be Protected from Insult" in Sydney on November 7.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua lamented that Anwar and his party were also scheduled to meet Malaysian students in an event organised by the Sydney chapter of Bersih.

Tian Chua told The Malaysian Insider that when Anwar's appeal was first scheduled to be heard on November 7, his lawyer tried to postpone the hearing date as he was supposed to be in Sydney on that day, but to no avail.

"This is unfortunate," said Tian Chua.

Tian Chua, who was also scheduled to accompany Anwar, noted that Anwar had agreed to participate in the debate seeing as the topic had some relevance to the Allah issue at home.

The others on the panel include spokesman for global Muslim advocacy group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Uthman Badar (for), Australian author Tom Keneally (against) and Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who is the founder of Youth without Borders (against).

Three weeks ago, Anwar spoke to a crowd of almost 1,000 people - mostly students - in conjunction with the Festival of Ideas at the Adelaide University.

Prior to that, Malaysian students in Australia sponsored by the Public Service Department (PSD), were warned not to attend Anwar's talk.

The threat, however, appeared to have backfired when Malaysian students defied the directive and attended Anwar's talk.

The warning to the scholars were criticised by Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon, who told the Malaysian government to "back off".