Saiful should be treated as accomplice in sodomy charge, Anwar’s lawyer says
(Malay Mail Online) – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defence team argued today that their client’s complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan should have been treated as an accomplice in Sodomy II.
Explaining, Anwar’s lead counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram (pic) pointed out to the five-man panel at the Federal Court this afternoon that the former political aide was an active participant of the alleged sodomy act.
“As an accomplice, Saiful cannot corroborate himself. Judge failed to ask right question and wrongly treated evidence as corroboration,” he said, referring to High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah who had presided over Anwar’s Sodomy II hearing in 2012.
Earlier, Sri Ram, who is a former Federal Court judge, asked that the court allow the submission of a photograph of Saiful supposedly taken after he was allegedly sodomised as evidence.
Sri Ram pointed out that the photo evidence was crucial as Saiful, who was formerly an aide to the Opposition Leader, did not look like someone who had just been “violently sodomised” a day earlier.
“His demeanor was normal, inconsistent with a man who had been violently sodomised 24 hours earlier before.
“His presence at the event confirms that it is not credible that he had been sodomised,” he told the court.
Anwar, who is the Permatang Pauh MP, was charged with sodomy for the second time after Saiful, his former aide, complained of being sodomised by the politician at the Desa Damansara condominium in upscale Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.
The Federal Court is hearing today Anwar’s challenge of the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn a lower court’s decision to acquit him of the charge.
The High Court had in 2012 acquitted Anwar of the 2008 charge but the appellate court ruled on March 7 this year that the trial judge had erred when rejecting the DNA evidence produced in the case.
Anwar has repeatedly maintained his innocence, insisting that the charges were trumped up to kill his political career as he allegedly poses a threat to the Barisan Nasional coalition’s decades-long rule with the Pakatan Rakyat alliance, which he now leads.
If Anwar fails to reverse his five-year imprisonment sentence and conviction in the Federal Court tomorrow, he would lose his seat as the law bars anyone fined RM2,000 or imprisoned for one year from serving as a lawmaker.
Today’s hearing is presided over by a five-member panel led by Chief Justice Tun Ariffin Zakaria.
Others include Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Embong, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar and Datuk Ramly Ali, who replaced Tan Sri Ahmad Haji Maarop.
Anwar is represented by a 14-man defence team led by Sri Ram. Others include lawyers R.Sivarasa, Latheefa Koya, N. Surendran and Gobind Singh Deo.
Lawyers from the prosecution team are Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria.
