Court sets Feb to hear Anwar bid to reinstate sodomy suit against govt

KUALA LUMPUR – Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim might get his day in court to question the government over his 2015 sodomy conviction.

The Court of Appeal has set February 23 to hear his bid to reinstate his suit against the government.

During submissions, Anwar’s lawyer Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram told the court that his client sought to recuse ad-hoc prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah from leading the sodomy 2 appeal on August 23, 2013.

Sri Ram added that after the recusal application was filed, Shafee received the first tranche of payment (RM4.3 million) of the RM9.5 million.

“The payment was not disclosed to the court. His (Shafee) failure to disclose rendered the hearing unfair,” Sri Ram was quoted as saying.

One of the judges on the three-person bench today, Datuk Supang Lian, then asked: “Are you asking us to send the case back to the high court?”

Sri Ram answered “yes” and said that it will allow the team to make bids to cross-examine Shafee on the RM9.5 million payment.

However, senior federal counsel Suzana Atan, representing Shafee, said there was no evidence in the suit showing that “the sanctity of the Court of Appeal and Federal Court were compromised”.

Co-counsel Harvinderjit Singh added that Shafee was paid RM1,000 by the government for the sodomy 2 appeal case.

The bench was chaired by Datuk Lee Swee Seng, with Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, and Supang.

In 2017, Putrajaya successfully struck out Anwar’s suit before the high court, saying the case did not have any cause of action and was an abuse of the court process.

Anwar had alleged that Shafee received RM9.5 million from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to lead the prosecution team in 2013.

Anwar filed an appeal after it was struck off. In September 2018, former attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas’ special officer Siti Rahayu Mohd Mumazaini filed an affidavit to support Anwar’s application for reinstatement.

Shafee is facing four counts of money laundering over the RM9.5 million he allegedly received. – The Vibes, November 5, 2021