It seems to me that the Judge has been fixed and it is a conspiracy against Anwar. There is no justice in this trial. The case should be closed as it is a wastage of tax-payers' money.
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Published: Wednesday May 12, 2010 MYT 9:28:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday May 12, 2010 MYT 4:47:26 PM
By M. MAGESWARI
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has failed to get the written statement of Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan from the prosecution.
The High Court here ruled Wednesday that there was no contradiction on the part of Mohd Saiful over evidence that the sodomy incident had occured without his consent.
Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said earlier that the Attorney-General had discretion to frame a lesser charge, although there was strong evidence against the person.
Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh has applied for a stay of the trial, pending an appeal over the dismissal of the application to supply Mohd Saiful's written statement to the defence.
The court stood down for an hour to decide over the stay appeal. The judge also reminded the parties over the existence of "contempt proceedings" in his court, and adjourned.
Court proceedings resumed at 11.05am.
The stay appeal was rejected by the court and Mohd Saiful will continue to testify.
Karpal submitted that the court would be in contempt if it ignored a Federal Court case law which required Anwar to file an affidavit first to apply for stay.
On Tuesday, Karpal applied for Mohd Saiful's statements recorded during the investigation of the sodomy case to be supplied to the defence for the purpose of cross-examination.
Karpal argued that the charge against Anwar under Section 377B of the Penal Code was for committing the sexual act with consent, while Mohd Saiful's evidence in court and his witness statements implied an alleged offence under Section 377C for a sexual act without consent.
He submitted that the defence had the right to have the statements to study the possibility of impeaching Mohd Saiful.
"Mohd Saiful stated in his police report that the incident took place without his consent. He confirmed this when he testified in court on Monday and he alleged the same thing today (Tuesday).
"This is not an ordinary case. The attention of the court is being directed to the contradiction and the court has to determine the discrepancies and decide over this.
"If we can prove that the witness lied in court, then we can impeach him," Karpal said.
Karpal contended that the issue of contradiction was being raised for the first time in Malaysian legal history.
Lead prosecutor Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden said there was no basis for the court to direct the prosecution to provide a copy of the statements to the defence.
He said the Attorney-General had the discretion when deciding to frame a lesser charge against Anwar.
Anwar, 63, claimed trial to sodomising 25-year-old Mohd Saiful, his former personal aide, at the Desa Damansara Condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.
Meanwhile, the trial was adjourned to Thursday after Karpal Singh told the court he had had filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal to to stay proceedings pending the appeal.
The judge said that the court would hear the application for the stay of proceedsings on Thursday.
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