The Court of Appeal has adjourned to Dec 19 the hearing of Anwar Ibrahim's second application to disqualify senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as lead prosecutor for the government in the Sodomy II acquittal appeal.
Tommy Thomas (left), Anwar's lawyer for this application, said he needs time to reply to Shafee's affidavit which he had received only this morning.
Tommy Thomas (left), Anwar's lawyer for this application, said he needs time to reply to Shafee's affidavit which he had received only this morning.
Shafee, who was appointed by attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail last July to lead the prosecution team, told the court earlier that the AG’s Chambers received the sealed copy of Anwar’s notice of motion application and affidavit in support to disqualify him on Tuesday morning.
“The AGC received an unsealed copy on Monday at 6.30pm and by that time no one was in the office. After receiving the sealed copy yesterday, we replied to Anwar’s affidavit by submitting my affidavit which is 26 pages, and others within four hours,” he said.
At this juncture, Court of Appeal judge Aziah Ali indicated they have not received the prosecution’s reply when the case was called, and Shafee replied that they only managed to get a sealed copy this morning and submitted the required papers.
Sitting with Justice Aziah on the three member-panel were Justices Rohana Yusof and Mohd Zawawi Salleh, who indicated they would need time to look at the reply.
Tommy indicated that they will have to reply to the affidavit since they just received it today, and he had not gone through Shafee’s reply.
“Hence, we apply that the hearing of the application to disqualify Shafee be adjourned,” said the senior lawyer.
However, that reply seems to have riled up Shafee, who insisted he had some issues about this and that the court can hear the application. He pointed out that as Justice Rohana and Justice Mohd Zawawi are aware, Anwar had been coming up with applications at the last minute.
Tommy replied that former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim had only made public his statutory declaration only recently, and the affidavit-in-reply cannot be done by tomorrow as Anwar was overseas.
Prosecution’s appeal postponed as Karpal hospitalised
The hearing into the prosecution's appeal against the acquittal of Anwar in the Sodomy II case, which had been fixed for today, will also be heard on Dec 19 when case management is held.
Anwar’s lawyer Karpal Singh was not at today's proceeding, as he has been warded at Hospital Kuala Lumpur since Dec 7.
Ramkarpal Singh (left), who appeared for Anwar in the appeal, told the court that his father is having a lung ailment.
“We do not know when he will be discharged from the hospital, maybe Friday or Saturday. After that, he will need time to recover probably two weeks,” Ramkarpal pointed out.
Despite this, Shafee wanted the case to proceed as soon as possible even to the point of having it heard on Friday or next week as it has taken so long.
However, Tommy stressed that Anwar’s application to remove Shafee must be heard first before the appeal proper, and this led the court to fix next Thursday to hear the application, and also fixed the same date for case management.
Appearing with Tommy Thomas is Latheefa Koya and Sivarasa Rasiah, while DPPs Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and Noorin Badaruddin also appeared with Shafee.
On Saturday it was reported that Anwar had filed an application to remove Shafee from leading the prosecution following revelations that Mat Zain made in his statutory declaration which he had sent to prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, the solicitor-general Idrus Harun, chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.
This follows the former top cop had claimed of having a meetingwith Shafee and also former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in discussing Abdul Gani’s alleged misconduct and the loss of Pulau Batu Puteh.
Mat Zain had also been quizzed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday following his SD revelation that money was transferred to a foreign account following the Pulau Batu Puleh loss in 2008.
Anwar was acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 9, of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at the Desa Damansara condominium.
“The AGC received an unsealed copy on Monday at 6.30pm and by that time no one was in the office. After receiving the sealed copy yesterday, we replied to Anwar’s affidavit by submitting my affidavit which is 26 pages, and others within four hours,” he said.
At this juncture, Court of Appeal judge Aziah Ali indicated they have not received the prosecution’s reply when the case was called, and Shafee replied that they only managed to get a sealed copy this morning and submitted the required papers.
Sitting with Justice Aziah on the three member-panel were Justices Rohana Yusof and Mohd Zawawi Salleh, who indicated they would need time to look at the reply.
Tommy indicated that they will have to reply to the affidavit since they just received it today, and he had not gone through Shafee’s reply.
“Hence, we apply that the hearing of the application to disqualify Shafee be adjourned,” said the senior lawyer.
However, that reply seems to have riled up Shafee, who insisted he had some issues about this and that the court can hear the application. He pointed out that as Justice Rohana and Justice Mohd Zawawi are aware, Anwar had been coming up with applications at the last minute.
Tommy replied that former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim had only made public his statutory declaration only recently, and the affidavit-in-reply cannot be done by tomorrow as Anwar was overseas.
Prosecution’s appeal postponed as Karpal hospitalised
The hearing into the prosecution's appeal against the acquittal of Anwar in the Sodomy II case, which had been fixed for today, will also be heard on Dec 19 when case management is held.
Anwar’s lawyer Karpal Singh was not at today's proceeding, as he has been warded at Hospital Kuala Lumpur since Dec 7.
Ramkarpal Singh (left), who appeared for Anwar in the appeal, told the court that his father is having a lung ailment.“We do not know when he will be discharged from the hospital, maybe Friday or Saturday. After that, he will need time to recover probably two weeks,” Ramkarpal pointed out.
Despite this, Shafee wanted the case to proceed as soon as possible even to the point of having it heard on Friday or next week as it has taken so long.
However, Tommy stressed that Anwar’s application to remove Shafee must be heard first before the appeal proper, and this led the court to fix next Thursday to hear the application, and also fixed the same date for case management.
Appearing with Tommy Thomas is Latheefa Koya and Sivarasa Rasiah, while DPPs Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and Noorin Badaruddin also appeared with Shafee.
On Saturday it was reported that Anwar had filed an application to remove Shafee from leading the prosecution following revelations that Mat Zain made in his statutory declaration which he had sent to prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, the solicitor-general Idrus Harun, chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar.
This follows the former top cop had claimed of having a meetingwith Shafee and also former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in discussing Abdul Gani’s alleged misconduct and the loss of Pulau Batu Puteh.
Mat Zain had also been quizzed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday following his SD revelation that money was transferred to a foreign account following the Pulau Batu Puleh loss in 2008.
Anwar was acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 9, of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at the Desa Damansara condominium.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.