‘We are exhausted,’ CJ says as prosecution bids for rebuttal

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 7 — An appeal hearing initially scheduled for two days but is now in its eighth day of hearing has left a Federal Court panel “exhausted” and unwilling to entertain a request by the prosecution to revisit matters already heard.

Following the conclusion of defence lawyer Gopal Sri Ram’s submissions today, lead prosecutor Tan Sri Muhd Shafee Abdullah told the court that the prosecution wished to reply to the matters just raised.

But Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria was unreceptive towards the attempt, asking whether the defence had raised any issue that merited the prosecution’s rebuttal.

“We are exhausted,” Arifin told Shafee.

This prompted the private lawyer to wade through a bundle of documents to locate his point of contention, which centred on the state of mind of Anwar’s accuser, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, at the time of the alleged sodomy.

The defence previously asserted that a photograph of him appearing relax at a tea party the day after the alleged sodomy was inconsistent with that of a victim of sexual assault.

Shafee said that he wished to argue “the distinction between submission and consent.”

Arifin was unmoved and later adjourned the hearing to an unspecified date.

“In view of the submissions... we will need some time (to consider),” he said.

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 case was originally allotted two days of hearing — October 28 and 29 — but has stretched on for eight days now and with no clear end in sight.

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.

If Anwar fails to reverse his five-year imprisonment sentence and conviction in the Federal Court, 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 Arifin 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.

Anwar is represented by a 14-man defence team led by Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram. Others include lawyers R.Sivarasa, Latheefa Koya, N. Surendran and Gobind Singh Deo.

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