PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is applying to the Federal Court to compel former Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Ramli Yusuff to give oral evidence in his Sodomy 2 case's review hearing.
Anwar said Ramli's testimony should be heard and recorded by the apex court before the court hears his review application against his conviction and five-year jail term over sodomy charge.
He said Ramli's evidence is of great importance in establishing that there existed a political conspiracy against him which led to his sodomy charge.
The PKR leader said Ramli's evidence is credible and of crucial importance, adding that the Federal Court would not have rejected his defence of a political conspiracy if the additional testimony had been available to him earlier.
He asked the court to allow his application in the interests of justice.
Anwar said that Ramli had on May 27 given sworn evidence at the KL High Court in a trial of a civil suit filed by lawyer Rosli Dahlan against the MACC officials, Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd and the Government, which strongly supported his defence that he was a victim of political conspiracy and fabricated evidence.
In his application, Anwar, who is serving his jail term in the Sungai Buloh prison, named the Public Prosecutor as the sole respondent.
He filed his application at the Federal Court registry through his lawyers N.Surendran and Latheefa Koya.
Speaking to reporters here, Surendran said if the application was allowed by the court, the prosecution could also cross-examine Ramli over his evidence.
Latheefa said that the move would give an opportunity to them to ask further questions which could support Anwar's key defence on political conspiracy.
"Ramli's evidence should be heard and recorded by the Federal Court first before the hearing of Anwar's review application," said Latheefa, ading that they had filed Ramli's witness statement (tendered in Rosli's civil trial) to support their case.
In his affidavit-in-support of his application, Anwar said one of the main grounds in his review application was that he was a victim of political conspiracy and fabricated evidence which involved powerful figures in the government and police.
Anwar said he only became aware of Ramli's evidence from his solicitors based on the newspaper reports of the civil trial and Ramli's witness statement which was shown to him later.
Among others, he said that Ramli's testimony at the civil trial had also clearly shown conspiracy by powerful figures with regards to his black eye incident which took place on Sept 20, 1998, and that one of the main persons is also responsible for the prosecution to be carried out against him in the Sodomy 2 case, for which he now stand unjustly convicted.
Anwar, 67, had on April 30 filed an application to get a fresh panel of judges to review over his conviction and five-year jail term for sodomy on grounds of injustice.
On Feb 10, a Federal Court upheld Anwar's conviction and his five-year jail term imposed by a Court of Appeal for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in Bukit Damansara in June 2008.
However, the cross-appeal by the prosecution for enhancement of his sentence was dismissed by the apex court.
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