Following the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to strike out Anwar Ibrahim's subpoenas to summonn Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor as a witness in the sodomy trial, the defence today decided it will not call another two witnesses.

NONE The two witnesses who were scheduled to be called are former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan and former Malacca police chief Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof (right) .

This surprise move was confirmed today by Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair.

"We have informed the other party (prosecution) on the decision."

"There is no point calling those two, since the court disallowed the calling of premier Najib Abdul Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor," Sankara said when contacted.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

Musa had received a call from complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan a day after meeting Najib. Rodwan, who was Najib's aide-de-camp when he was deputy prime minister, had met Saiful at the Concorde Hotel a day before the alleged sodomy incident.

'Defence has been inconsistent'

When contacted, solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden confirmed he had been informed that the defence would not be calling Musa and Rodwan.

NONE “The defence has been inconsistent on whether to call Musa and Rodwan. Initially they wanted, but then did not want. Suddenly, they again wanted and now this reversal,” Yusof said.

The defence action in not calling Musa and Rodwan, despite having called them for interviews at which they refused to answers questions put forward by Anwar's lawyers, is seen by some in the legal circle as puzzling.

This comes after the defence filed an appeal against trial judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah's decision last Thursday allowing the applications by Najib and Rosmah to strike out the subpoenas issued to them to appear as defence witnesses.

Yusof also confirmed receiving a copy of the defence application to appeal Justice Zabidin's decision.

“We just received it today,” he told Malaysiakini .

Following this development, the lead prosecutor said, his team would submit on the issue of calling in three or four rebuttal witnesses - whom he declined to name - on Monday.