Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today filed his appeal over the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court's dismissal of his ‘qazaf’ (bearing false witness) application.

But there was a slight hiccup during the filing of the appeal when Anwar’s lawyers were informed that the police had apparently instructed the court registrar not to accept the application.

azlan The Permatang Pauh parliamentarian, who was accompanied by lawyers Kamar Ainiah Kamaruddin and Dorina Abdullah, arrived at the court at 10.05am to sign several documents.

The Syariah High Court had on April 14 threw out Anwar's qazaf application when the judge ruled that the court should not interfere in the chief prosecutors task to commit Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar is seeking to compel the syariah chief prosecutor to institute legal action against Mohd Saiful for allegedly lying and not producing the four required witnesses as in Islamic law to back his sodomy allegation against the opposition leader.

This was supposed to be a routine application to appeal to the country’s highest Islamic court, the Syariah Court of appeal.

Police 'order' court not to accept

According to lawyer Dorina, a Dang Wangi sergeant has allegedly instructed the registrar yesterday not to accept the application.

"They said to wait until a sergeant arrives to decide whether to accept the documents. I immediately went back downstairs to get Anwar, who was about to leave," said Dorina.

However when pressed by Anwar, the officer at the counter said the chief registrar would first need to contact a 'datuk' before accepting the application.

"After getting clearance from the datuk, the registrar accepted the application," said Dorina.

The 'datuk' is presumably Syariah Court chief judge Mohammad Abdullah.

Dorina said this has never happened before in the Syariah Court.

"Maybe it is because it is Anwar's case. I am shocked," she said.

Anwar makes light of incident

Anwar quipped that such an incident can only happen to him, where the courts, parliament and the police are all under the thumbs of the government.

"I told the officer (registrar) that I understand, and that it is not her fault as we live in Malaysia," the opposition leader said.

Anwar added that this showed the reluctance of the chief prosecutor to act professionally.

"Mind you, this is an Islamic religious court. There has been no explanation. The refusal to act is based on political reason," he said. "Unless, it is young girls drinking beer."

According to Kamar Ainiah, the police would not have dare do this in the civil courts.

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