No review for sodomy conviction, Anwar remains in jail

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has to stay on in prison, but the 69-year-old former Opposition Leader remains optimistic.

After the Federal Court ruled that there was no merit to his application for a review of his Sodomy II conviction and five-year jail sentence, Anwar told reporters: “This is not the end of the road.”

Anwar will now serve out the remaining 18 months of his sentence at the Sungai Buloh prison.

He is expected to be released after 16 months as there is a one-third remission of jail terms for good behaviour.

Despite that, Anwar would not be eligible to contest in a general election held in 2018.

In March 2014, the Court of Appeal overturned Anwar’s acquittal by the High Court and convicted and sentenced him to five years in jail for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari, 30, at the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008. This was upheld by the Federal Court on Feb 10 last year.

Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, who chaired the five-man panel, said they were unanimous in finding no merit to Anwar’s application.

“This is not a fit and proper case for this court to exercise its inherent jurisdiction to make any order for the case to be reviewed,” he said in delivering the 60-page judgment yesterday.

Sitting with him were Federal Court Justices Hasan Lah, Abu Samah Nordin and Zaharah Ibrahim. Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum was not present for the reading as he was attending a funeral in Kota Kinabalu.

Anwar came to the courtroom at about 9.52am, accompanied by 17 prison guards.

He hugged his wife Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, daughters, Nurul Izzah, Nurul Nuha and Nurul Ilham, and grandchildren before approaching his team of lawyers.

At 10.20am, the court delivered its verdict.

Justice Zulkefli said the court found no merit to review its judgment of Feb 10 last year on the basis of “the swift and premature release of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) statement on the court's judgment”.

“There is no evidence to show there was any communication between the PMO and the Federal Court, either prior or subsequent to the decision of the case.

“The affidavit-in-reply of the PMO director of the Media Division Datuk Seri Tengku Shariffuddin Tengku Ahmad confirmed this fact.”

As to whether it was right or proper for the PMO to issue a statement commenting on Anwar’s conviction immediately after the court’s decision on Feb 10 last year, Justice Zulkefli said they took the view that the issuance of such a statement was not within the control of the court.

“As a separate branch of the Government, the Judiciary and the courts operate independently in their decision-making process with no interference from other branches of the Government.”

Justice Zulkefli said they also noted that Anwar had not furnished any evidence or averment of any sort to suggest that lead prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had allegedly influenced the decision of the Federal Court on Feb 10.

On the matter of Mohd Saiful not bringing KY Jelly to the scene, he said the record of proceedings of the trial court showed that the issue had been dealt with by the prosecution and defence.

Justice Zulkefli said they took the view that the issues relating to any mis-evaluation of the evidence, improper misdirection or non-direction, if any, “were not within the permitted circumstances that this court could exercise its inherent powers of review”.

On the challenge to the chain of evidence with regard to the DNA analysis and samples, Justice Zulkefli said the Court of Appeal and Federal Court had given due consideration to the matter and ruled that the integrity of the DNA sample was not compromised.