Federal Court dashes Anwar's freedom bid

The apex court today dismissed PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's review of the Sodomy II conviction and sentence.

With this, Anwar, formerly Malaysia's opposition leader, is expected to remain in jail until mid-2018.

The five-member bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin ruled there was no bias or procedural unfairnes with regard to how the previous panel reached its decision.

On the issue of the premature and swift response from the Prime Minister's Office over the sodomy II verdict on Feb 10, last year, Justice Zulkefli wrote that while the statement as argued by the appellant had given the public the impression that Anwar did not receive a fair and independent hearing, the court took the view it was not within the control of the court to stop the issuance of the statement.

“As a separate branch of the government, the judiciary and the courts operate independently in their decision-making process, with no interference from other branches of government.

“There has to exist a clear separation of powers between the judiciary and the other two arms of the government in order to uphold the rule of law,” he said.Ruling further that there was no merit in the allegation that the statement was issued premature, he added this did not fall under the ambit of Rule 137 (that allowed a review).

“There is no evidence to show that there was any communication whatsoever between the PMO and the Federal Court either prior or subsequent to the decision of the case,” he said in the unanimous decision.

The other judges were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum, along with Federal court judges Hasan Lah, Abu Samah Nordin and Zaharah Ibrahim.

However Justice Malanjum was not on the bench today as he had to attend the funeral of a relative who had passed away.- Mkini