Former Bar Council president joins Anwar’s defence team

Senior lawyer Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah has been roped in to replace the late Karpal Singh in the defence team in preparation of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy appeal in the Federal Court.

Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh (pic) said he was informed today of Sulaiman's inclusion.

"It is Anwar's prerogative. However, others who appeared in the Court of Appeal, including me, will remain," he said.

Sulaiman, a renowned civil lawyer and once a law lecturer, has agreed to the appointment.

Apart from Karpal and his son Ramkarpal, the others in the team were Sangeet Kaur Deo (Karpal's daughter) and Zaleha Al-Hayat.

Sulaiman, a former Bar Council president, is no stranger to the case, having appeared for Anwar in the early stages when the opposition leader was first charged in the Sessions Court in 2008.

He represented Anwar in numerous interlocutory applications which went up to the Federal Court.

Karpal was appointed to conduct the sodomy trial after Sulaiman (pic, right) was ill and hospitalised.

Meanwhile, Ramkarpal said he had written to the Federal Court to ask for an extension of time to file the petition of appeal.

"I hope to get a reply by tomorrow on whether the court will allow up to two weeks to file the grounds to appeal," he said.

In any case, he said the defence was preparing the petition to be filed by Friday.

The Court of Appeal had on Wednesday sent the grounds of judgment to Karpal's firm thus giving him a 10-day deadline.

Karpal, 73, died in a car crash on April 17 along with his assistant Michael Cornelius at KM301.6 of the North-South Expressway near Kampar in Perak.

On March 7, the Court of Appeal sentenced Anwar to five years jail after it allowed Putrajaya's appeal to set aside a High Court ruling.

Anwar has always maintained that the charges were trumped up to hurt his political career.

Putrajaya has filed a cross appeal to seek a longer jail sentence for 66-year-old Anwar.