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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Court dismisses Anwar objection in sodomy II

By Adib Zalkapli | KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25,2009 | Malaysianinsider

— The Kuala Lumpur High Court today dismissed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s objection to the prosecution’s application not to transfer the sodomy case to the High Court. The prosecution’s application was an appeal for the case to be heard in the Sessions Court.

Justice Mohamad Zabidin in allowing the application by the prosecution said the preliminary objection is premature and the High Court has wide revisionary powers.

The prosecution team is led by Solicitor-General Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden.

In November, Sessions Court Judge SM Komathy refused to transfer the case to the High Court after the defence team led by Sulaiman Abdullah challenged the validity of the certificate of transfer signed by the Attorney-General.

Earlier the defence argued that the decision for the case to remain at the Session Courts does not amount to miscarriage of justice as the charge against Anwar is still pending and the prosecution is still free to proceed with the trial.

It added that the prosecution has to show that “a substantial failure or miscarriage of justice has occurred which has caused undeserved hardship”, for the High Court to invoke its power in revising the earlier decision.

“It is our humble submission that no injustice has been caused to the prosecution by the Sessions Court’s refusal to transfer the case, and no injustice has been caused to the prosecution’s right to pursue its case,” said Sulaiman in his submission.

The prosecution said that the Sessions Court judge had committed an error.

“The learned Sessions Court judge did not stipulate under which provisions of the law the decision was based. The order of the learned Sessions Court judge was plainly wrong and illegal which would warrant the intervention of this honourable court under its revisionary powers,” said Yusof.

He also argued that the High Court has a wide and extensive revisionary powers.

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