The hearing of Anwar Ibrahim's application to get more than 10 documents from the prosecution in his sodomy trial has been fixed on July 1 in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

the charge against anwar ibrahim sodomy allegation trial 070808 The hearing of another application to strike out the sodomy charge has been fixed for July 8.

If the application is dismissed, the hearing will proceed the same day.

The court had initially fixed July 1-24 to hear the sodomy charge.

The application for the documents was filed on June 10.

Anwar wants the original CCTV recordings taken at several locations at the scene of the alleged incident at the Desa Damansara Condominium in Bukit Damansara.

The rest are the DNA samples, statements from witnesses including the complainant, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, police statements and several other documents.

About 30 witnesses are scheduled to testify.

'We need time to reply'

Anwar's lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah informed Justice Zabidin Mohd Diah that the defence had obtained just two of the prosecution's affidavits and needed time to reply to it.

“We need to reply to the averments from the two affidavits and our reply will be filed by June 29. If there is no objection the defence would like to apply for a postponement,” he said.

The judge fixed July 1 to hear the application.

On June 17, Anwar also had filed an application to strike out the sodomy charge on the basis that the charge is mala fide (with bad intention) and an abuse of the judicial process.

And the perception that the High Court may have already decided on the matter was heightened when it fixed July 8 to hear the application to strike out the sodomy charge - and to proceed immediately if the application does not succeed.

nizar vs zambry court case sulaiman abdullah lawyer 070509 Anwar's lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah (left) cautioned Zabidin on the dangers of such a perception.

“The court may give a dangerous perception that it may have already decided on the application to strike out the charges by fixing the trial on the same day,” said the senior lawyer.

“I'm not saying that your honour may have already decided, but this may create such a perception. What would be appropriate is to fix a mention date for the trial proper.”

Sulaiman also informed the court that Anwar has filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal against Zabidin's decision to allow the sodomy trial to be heard at the High Court and not the Sessions Court.

“However, no date has been fixed for hearing at the appellate court.”

Sessions court judge 'erred'

On March 5, Zabidin had allowed a judicial review and ruled that the sodomy trial should be heard at the High Court as Sessions Court judge SM Komathy Suppiah had erred when she found the certificate of transfer signed by attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to be invalid.

Deputy solicitor-general II Yusof Zainal Abiden who is heading a team of five prosecutors, had earlier today applied for the trial dates to continue on the same day as the application to strike out the sodomy charge.

Yusof also assured that all affidavits-in-reply from the prosecution's side on the application would be tendered before July 8.

“The prosecution is worried over the availability of witnesses as the trial dates had originally been fixed from July 1-24. That is why we are asking the court to fix the same day as the trial date,” he said.

“I do not know if the defence would then apply for a stay of the decision should it be successful, but we feel it (the trial) should be held immediately if it falls in our favour.”

Following the prosecution's application, Zabidin ruled that the hearing for the application to strike out the sodomy charge and the trial date would be on the same date - July 8.

Anwar had, on Friday, said the worst-case scenario would be that he would be sent back to prison after a quick conviction.