Anwar gave statement from dock due to past experience - Sri Ram
Bernama
November 7, 2014 18:43 MYT
November 7, 2014 18:43 MYT
Sri Ram said Anwar chose this route because he felt the whole case was a conspiracy against him to end his political career. - File Photo
Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, the lead counsel for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the Federal Court that the PKR adviser should not be blamed for opting to make a statement from the dock in his defence during
his sodomy trial.
In his closing argument for the opposition leader's final appeal against a sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence, he said Anwar chose to do so due to his past experience where the lower courts had convicted him on a similar charge (of having sodomised his family driver, Azizan Abu Bakar).
(Anwar was later acquitted by the Federal Court in a 2-1 majority decision).
Sri Ram said Anwar chose this route because he felt the whole case was a conspiracy against him to end his political career.
Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, also told the five-man bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria that in the current case involving Anwar's former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the complainant was "a man with a motive and a worthless witness".
"The trial judge (High Court) misdirected himself when he gave much weightage for corroboration when Mohd Saiful Bukhari's credibility is in doubt," he said on the eighth day of the appeal proceedings.
Sri Ram also cited several case laws which stated that once credibility was lacking, then corroboration was irrelevant.
He said at the defence stage, the trial judge had decided it was not 100 per cent safe to convict Anwar since the testimony of the main witness (Mohd Saiful Bukhari) did not corroborate the DNA evidence which was a crucial point in the prosecution's case.
Earlier, Sri Ram told the court that a photograph of Mohd Saiful Bukhari serving tea at Anwar's house, a day after the alleged incident, should be accepted as an exhibit since the person in the picture admitted he was there, without calling its maker (photographer).
He said the photograph was relevant to show the demeanour of Mohd Saiful Bukhari, which the defence looked normal and happy, but it was not marked as an exhibit during the trial.
After Sri Ram concluded his submission, lead prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah stood up and sought the court's permission to reply to the defence's argument over the issue of consent relating to the sodomy charge.
However, Arifin told Muhammad Shafee: "You can give citations and we can read ourselves, it (appeal) has to come to an end, unless there are new issues."
The other four judges are Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar and Datuk Ramly Ali.
In the appeal, Anwar, 67 is seeking the apex court to set aside the conviction and sentence imposed by the Court of Appeal on March 7, this year after it had overturned a High Court decision to acquit him.
The Court of Appeal had found Anwar guilty of having sodomised Mohd Saiful Bukhari, 27, at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara between 3.10pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
PHOTO GALLERY: ANWAR IBRAHIM'S FINAL APPEAL PROCEEDINGS ENTERS SIXTH DAY
The charge, under Section 377B of the Penal Code, carries a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping, upon conviction.
On Jan 9, 2012 the High Court acquitted and discharged Anwar of having sodomised Mohd Saiful Bukhari on the grounds that the court could not be 100 per cent certain on the integrity of samples taken for DNA testing from the alleged victim.
The court had ruled that the samples could have been compromised before they reached the Chemistry Department for analysis.
However, the Court of Appeal, in convicting Anwar on the sodomy charge, held that the trial judge had erred in his findings on the samples which were based on the evidence of two expert witnesses called by the defence.