Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Azmin Ali did not commit perjury when he testified that he was threatened by the police and forced to make a confession implicating sexual misconduct by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim , the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.

Counsel CV Prabhakaran said that although Azmin had used different words to describe police brutality when he made the complaint to magistrate Mohd Azhar Othman, this when compared to his testimony in Anwar's corruption trial did not mean that his client had given a false statement.

He said the Sessions Court was wrong to convict Azmin for perjury as he already given a proper and legitimate explanation as to why different words were used.

"Different words were used but the meaning did not change. Although he did not use the words "threaten" and "brutal" to the magistrate, the words he stated were understood to have the same meaning," said Prabakharan.

"We called the magistrate who recorded Azmin's complaint at the first instance and he testified based on what Azmin had told him, he understood it to be that Azmin was indeed threatened by the police."

"We submit that the perjury charge cannot stand because a proper and legitimate explanation was given to the court," argued counsel.

Evidence notes poser

Azmin, who was Anwar's former private secretary, is appealing against Sessions Court Judge Akhtar Tahir's decision of May 2, 2001 which found him guilty of giving false evidence when testifying in Anwar's corruption trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in March 1999 before Justice S Augustine Paul.

Akhtar had said he was satisfied there were discrepancies between Azmin's testimony in Anwar's trial and his complaint to the magistrate. He sentenced Azmin to 18 months' jail.

Azmin was initially acquitted from the charge in July 1999 when Sessions Court Judge Hamdan Indah found there was nothing in the prosecution's case that warranted him to enter his defence.

However, the prosecution appealed against the acquittal and this was allowed on Feb 17, 2000 by High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail, who ordered the case to be sent back to the Sessions Court for Azmin to enter his defence.

This led to Azmin's conviction and sentence, against which he is now appealing before Justice Abdul Kadir Musa.

During today's afternoon session, Justice Abdul Kadir referred counsel to Akhtar's conclusion on the prosecution's case which was tried before him.

He questioned whether Akhtar's conclusion was based on the notes of evidence before him or the findings of either Hamdan's or Wahab's.

After a discussions, the court set Nov 14 for further arguments on the issue.