In a surprising move, the Federal Court today rejected granting Anwar Ibrahim more time to file his petition of appeal over the Sodomy II conviction following the death of his lead counsel Karpal Singh.

Instead the apex court asked the opposition leader's lawyers to file in a proper notice of motion on the matter.

PKR’s legal head Latheefa Koya said Karpal’s firm had written in citing two reasons for seeking an extension, namely the senior lawyer’s untimely death and that the other counsel Ramkarpal, who is Karpal’s third son, was still grieving.

However, a lawyer from Karpal’s firm, Zaleha Al Hayat, said the Federal Court rejected this written plea and demanded that a proper notice of motion be filed.

Even with the notice of motion, there is no guarantee that an extension will be allowed, Zaleha said.

“This move is highly inconsiderate of the court and shows a lack of sympathy and understanding for the tragedy of Karpal’s death.

“Even in death Karpal’s law firm is being harassed. It appears also that the court is bent on rushing through with the appeal, since it will not even grant an extension on compassionate grounds,” Latheefa told Malaysiakini .

Normally, a petition of appeal has to be filed within 10 days after receiving the court’s written judgment . The petition includes a list of grounds on which the appellant (Anwar) is seeking to set aside the conviction.

Later in the afternoon, the Federal Court's corporate communications and International Relations head, Mohd Aizuddin Zolkeply, said in response that any application has to be made to the court via a notice of motion and not a letter. 

"After the notice of motion is filed, the application will be heard before the judges and a decision will be made on whether to allow the extension or otherwise. All this is outlined in the Federal Court Procedures 1995," he said.

The Court of Appeal had on March 7 overturned the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision and found Anwar guilty of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at Desa Damansara Condominium on June 26, 2008.

Basically, the written judgment by the appellate court found the specimen to be intact despite investigating officer Supt Jude Blacious Pereira having cut open the plastic holding all the samples retrieved from Saiful.

Sulaiman replacing Karpal

Yesterday, it was reported that former Malaysian Bar president and senior lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah would replace Karpal as lead counsel, and Ramkarpal, who played a pivotal role in questioning the DNA evidence, would also be part of the team.

Sulaiman ( right ), who also played a pivotal role in the Sodomy I case in the late 1990s, was initially the lead counsel in this case until he fell ill, resulting in Karpal and his team replacing Sulaiman.

It was also reported yesterday that Karpal’s law firm is writing in to seek an extension of time to file the petition.

Following this latest development, the new legal team may not be able to take any chances and has to file the petition, possibly by tomorrow or at the latest by Friday.

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