It is the end of the road for Anwar Ibrahim's former speech-writer Dr Munawar Ahmad Anees who has battled for 11 years to clear his name on a sodomy charge.

The Court of Appeal comprising justices Low Hop Bing, Hasan Lah and Sulaiman Daud today unanimously dismissed his application on ground that the issues raised had already been judicially considered by the Federal Court.

munawar anees 271108 Munawar had sought to have his appeal against conviction and six-month jail sentence for sodomy remitted to the High Court for argument on merit.

The High Court on Sept 9, 2003, struck out the appeal without hearing the merits of the case on ground that he had failed to appear in any of the appeal proceedings, although his absence had been fully explained to the court by his counsel.

His attempt to reverse the decision was also turned down by the Court of Appeal on Oct 30 2007.

He then brought the matter to the Federal Court for review but was also unsuccessful as the apex court held that it did not have the inherent powers to hear the matter because the case originated from the subordinate court and its final appeal was at the Court of Appeal.

Munawar then filed a review application at the Court of Appeal.

Conviction affirmed

Meanwhile, the same court struck out Munawar's appeal against the High Court's dismissal of two of his applications after he withdrew it with liberty to take whatever action deemed fit and necessary.

The two applications were for an order that the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of Prisons provide a detailed schedule of his movements during his period of detention and a copy of the schedule of all his visitors since his incarceration in 1998.

With the decision, the conviction against Munawar, 61, who had served six months in prison in 1998 after he pleaded guilty to allowing Anwar to sodomise him in Anwar's house in Jalan Setia Murni 1, Bukit Damansara, during the month of March in 1993, is affirmed.

Munawar had served his sentence but pursued to challenge the court's decision to clear his name, claiming that he was coerced into pleading guilty to the charge.

At today's hearing, his counsel, Manjeet Singh Dhillon, urged the court to give Munawar another opportunity to fight his case as it was his basic right to be heard in any process of justice.

Deputy public prosecutor Awang Amardajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that Munawar was seeking to relitigate on an issue which had already been deliberated on by the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

-Bernama