Comment From Din Merican

Justice is being once again denied when the High Court Judge, Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah, today dismissed Anwar Ibrahim’s application to strike out the sodomy charge (Sodomy 2) This was not unexpected by Anwar himself and his legal team, although their grounds for their application were valid, that is, the medical reports by four (4) medical specialists,not one (1) showed no penetration. What stronger evidence is needed than that!

The Hon’ble Judge, however, felt otherwise. He is of the view that “only a full trial could determine if there was actual penetration as charged by the prosecution”.It does not take a legal genius to know that the medical report is crucial in determining whether or not a “sexual act” (in this case, sodomy) was committed. (more…)

From The Malaysian Insider
By Leslie Lau

Sila lihat juga Laman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

KUALA LUMPUR , Dec 1 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (picture) has given notice in Parliament of an attempt to table a private member’s bill to amend the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 to guarantee oil producing states revenue from oil royalties from the federal government.

The proposed changes to the law are not likely to be debated in Parliament because the government does not customarily allow the opposition to table law, and will move to block such an attempt.

But the Opposition Leader appears to be using his proposed amendments to apply further pressure on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration to deal with the flap over oil royalties.

(more…)

From The Malaysian Insider
By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Exactly like 10 years ago Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today failed to escape trial for sodomy.

High Court judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah here tossed out the PKR adviser’s bid to strike out the sodomy charge against him and fixed the trial to be from January 25 to February 25 next year.

The judge said that the High Court has “inherent powers” to set aside the charge against Anwar but ruled that the latter must prove his claims of bad intent and political conspiracy on the part of the Attorney-General’s office.

Zabidin added that it was up to the prosecution to decide how they wanted to prove penetration occurred.

The 62-year-old grandfather stands accused of sodomy for the second time in his life; this time, it is with a former male aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 24.

(more…)

Permohonan saya untuk membatalkan pertuduhan fitnah telah pun ditolak mahkamah tinggi. Barisan peguam bela berhujah bahawa pertuduhan tersebut merupakan satu dakwaan jahat dan didalangi konspirasi politik.

Malah dikemukakan bukti penglibatan peguam negara dalam konspirasi kes terdahulu serta penglibatannya dalam pertuduhan terkini. Dilampirkan laporan suruhanjaya “mata lebam” yang menunjuki peguam negara terlibat memalsukan keterangan demi memastikan mereka yang mencederakan saya terlepas dari hukuman.

Manakala mahkamah berpendirian lapuran perubatan sahaja tidak memadai, peguam bela saya berhujah pertuduhan harus membuktikan adanya kemasukan atau tembusan, kerana itu mahkamah perlu mempertimbangkan laporan pusrawi dan hospital kuala lumpur yang jelas menunjukkan tidak berlakunya fitnah liwat itu. Mahkamah juga menetapkan tarikh perbicaraan pada 25 Januari 2009. Peguam Karpal Singh menyebut Mahkamah Persekutuan belum memberikan keputusan bersabit permohonan kami memperolehi dokumen. Hakim Zabidin Mohd Diah dengan bersahaja menjawab “tidak perlu.”

Mahkamah tinggi hari ini juga memutuskan punyai kuasa untuk membatalkan satu pendakwaan bagi mengelak penyalahgunaan kuasa mahkamah: “Safeguard an accused from abuse.”Dihadapkan dengan bukti yang jelas sebegini pun mahkamah memilih untuk berpihak kepada pendakwa.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Dari Sinar

Ketua Umum Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, mendakwa wujudnya tokoh-tokoh dalam Biro Tata Negara (BTN) yang berselindung di sebalik menteri untuk menyatakan tidak timbul isu perkauman dalam kursus BTN.

Sehubungan itu, beliau mencabar tokoh-tokoh BTN yang beliau sebut sebagai ‘pejuang besar BTN’ berdepan dan berbahas dengan PR secara terbuka mengenai isu ini.

Katanya, mereka ini, ‘bukan pahlawan Melayu atau pendekar’ kerana tidak sanggup berdepan untuk mempertahankan hujah mereka. (more…)