KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 – The Court of Appeal has fixed March 19 to hear Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s bid to remove the High Court judge in his sodomy trial, but the Opposition Leader is far from happy at the early date.
The 62-year-old politician, who is facing a sodomy charge for the second time in his life, had last month tried and failed to get Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah to step down from hearing his trial, which finally kicked off on Feb 3 after a two-year delay.
Anwar accused the High Court judge of bias against him after the latter refused to cite Utusan Malaysia for contempt of court when it published a news report of the trial the PKR adviser claimed was misleading.
Lawyer for Anwar, Sankara Nair, said he was informed yesterday of the hearing date by the Court of Appeal registrar but found the news “disturbing”.
“What is uniquely strange...is the unprecedented manner in which the Court of Appeal has acted in its perceived alacrity and its super efficiency in fixing a hearing date even before we, as solicitors, have filed a Petition of Appeal (POA),” said Sankara in an emailed statement.
He explained that the appellate court can only act to set a date for hearing after it has received the petition letter from the appellant, as laid down in the Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994.
He added that the appellant must first get the appeal records from the High Court before he can file in the petition to appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Based on the Rules of the Court of Appeal, the appellant has 10 days to file the petition.
Sankara claimed the Court of Appeal had skipped a step and deviated from the procedure, showing proof the judiciary was biased.
“In the current instance, I received the Appeal Records on 1st March 2010 from the High Court and according to the Rules as stated above I have 10 days i.e. until 11th March 2010, to file DSAI’s Petition of Appeal (stating the grounds).
“In this case I have not filed my POA yet and to my sheer amazement, I was notified today by the COA that it has already fixed a hearing date which is 19th of March 2010,” Sankara stressed.
He pointed out that the Court of Appeal had never moved with “such super efficiency as in this instance” compared to other previous appeals which were accompanied by certificates of urgency to bump the case to be given priority.
“From the above actions of the Court of Appeal there seems to be a clear case of discrimination towards DSAI in the Court of Appeal’s blatant disregard for the Rules as stated above,” Sankara said, calling attention to the skipped step.
MI
04/03/10
The 62-year-old politician, who is facing a sodomy charge for the second time in his life, had last month tried and failed to get Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah to step down from hearing his trial, which finally kicked off on Feb 3 after a two-year delay.
Anwar accused the High Court judge of bias against him after the latter refused to cite Utusan Malaysia for contempt of court when it published a news report of the trial the PKR adviser claimed was misleading.
Lawyer for Anwar, Sankara Nair, said he was informed yesterday of the hearing date by the Court of Appeal registrar but found the news “disturbing”.
“What is uniquely strange...is the unprecedented manner in which the Court of Appeal has acted in its perceived alacrity and its super efficiency in fixing a hearing date even before we, as solicitors, have filed a Petition of Appeal (POA),” said Sankara in an emailed statement.
He explained that the appellate court can only act to set a date for hearing after it has received the petition letter from the appellant, as laid down in the Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994.
He added that the appellant must first get the appeal records from the High Court before he can file in the petition to appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Based on the Rules of the Court of Appeal, the appellant has 10 days to file the petition.
Sankara claimed the Court of Appeal had skipped a step and deviated from the procedure, showing proof the judiciary was biased.
“In the current instance, I received the Appeal Records on 1st March 2010 from the High Court and according to the Rules as stated above I have 10 days i.e. until 11th March 2010, to file DSAI’s Petition of Appeal (stating the grounds).
“In this case I have not filed my POA yet and to my sheer amazement, I was notified today by the COA that it has already fixed a hearing date which is 19th of March 2010,” Sankara stressed.
He pointed out that the Court of Appeal had never moved with “such super efficiency as in this instance” compared to other previous appeals which were accompanied by certificates of urgency to bump the case to be given priority.
“From the above actions of the Court of Appeal there seems to be a clear case of discrimination towards DSAI in the Court of Appeal’s blatant disregard for the Rules as stated above,” Sankara said, calling attention to the skipped step.
MI
04/03/10
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