Lawyer: One possible avenue left for Anwar

PUTRAJAYA: There is one final possible avenue for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to get out of his Sodomy II conviction.

He could file an application for a review of yesterday’s Federal Court decision, said his defence lawyer Ramkarpal Singh.

He said although the defence had the option of the review, they would need to study the full judgment first.

“It depends on what we see in the judgment. Right now, we only have a brief oral judgment so it is too early to take action,” he said.

Ramkarpal said that although the decision was not in the defence's favour, they still respected it.

He added that unlike an appeal, there was no time limit on filing a review application, thus they did not want to jump the gun.

Anwar’s defence team had in 2010 filed a similar review after it failed to appeal to obtain documents including the statements of his accuser, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, to assist him in preparation of his defence in the sodomy trial.

The Federal Court then held that the apex court could not invoke its inherent powers to review its own decision on the merits of the case.

In another case involving businessman Megat Najmuddin Datuk Seri Megat Khas and Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Berhad in 2002, the court ruled that it had been conferred with inherent powers under Rule 137 of the Federal Court Rules 1995 to review cases with a view to preventing injustices in limited circumstances.