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Monday, August 17, 2015

Anwar seeks to disqualify judge from hearing clemency review

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says the judge who is to hear his judicial review on the Pardon's Board decision had represented against him in his defamation suit against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, August 17, 2015.Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says the judge who is to hear his judicial review on the Pardon's Board decision had represented against him in his defamation suit against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, August 17, 2015.
Former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, now serving a five-year prison term for sodomy, has applied to disqualify a judge from hearing a judicial review on the Pardons Board's decision to refuse him clemency.
Anwar said judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad was the same senior federal counsel who represented the government in his suit against former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"There is a real danger of bias if the judge hears the judicial review applicaton," he said in his application filed today.
Anwar began his five-year sentence in February this year after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.
Asmabi is to hear the recusal application on September 1.
Anwar, who was appointed deputy prime minister and finance minister in 1993 and was sacked on Septemebr 2, 1998, had challenged his dismissal on grounds that Dr Mahathir only informed the king of his removal after the fact.
Asmabi had appeared in the suit at the Court of Appeal in 2007, which upheld a High Court finding that the prime minister had absolute power to appoint and dismiss his Cabinet members.
The Federal Court also affirmed the decision in 2010 where the apex court said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, being a constitutional monarch, had a very limited role concerning the appointment of ministers.
Meanwhile, lawyer Shahid Ali Kamaruddin, a lawyer appearing for Anwar, said Asmabi was scheduled to hear the judicial review leave application today but adjourned it pending the disposal of the recusal application.
Senior Federal Counsel Suzanah Atan appeared for the Pardons Board.
Anwar's family members – wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and daughters Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha – had on June 24 filed the judicial review to quash the board's March 16 decision.
They want the bard to meet again to consider the petition for pardon and to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong accordingly.
The  applicants had named the Pardons Board of the Federal Territory, then Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and the government of Malaysia as respondents.
Anwar, in his affidavit to support the application by Dr Wan Azizah and his children, also wants the Pardons Board to free him as there was clear evidence of a political conspiracy and fabricated evidence.
He said the board had violated his rights as guaranteed in the Federal Constitution as the decision was arrived in breach of rules of natural justice.
After Anwar lost his final sodomy appeal on February 10 before the Federal Court, his family on February 24 filed a royal pardon to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on behalf of the former opposition leader.
However, lawyers N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya, came to know that the family's pardon application was dismissed during a court proceeding on March 27.
It was later revealed through an affidavit filed by director-general of the legal division of the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Nursiah Arshad that the petition to reject the clemency was made on March 16.
Anwar said his family were never officially notified about the rejection.
- TMI

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