The High Court's Special Powers and Appellate division has fixed next Thursday to continue hearing submissions from all parties in Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's leave application to disqualify seven prosecutors from his sodomy trial.

anwar sodomy 2 duta court hearing pkr leaders 080709 13 Judge Alizatul Khair Osman Khairuddin fixed the date after hearing preliminary submissions in her chambers from Anwar's counsel Sivarasa Rasiah today.

The submissions will be heard in an open court on Thursday.

According to Sivarasa, today's matter centred on technical issues as to whether this was the right court to hear the application and what they felt as a real danger of bias in allowing these prosecutors to continue.

"From the 1998 Anwar cases till the latest sodomy charge, we feel there is bad intention on the part of the prosecutors to implicate him despite further evidence adduced in (the cases of) Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja, Munawar Aness and the black-eye incident.

"We have also submitted to the judge that this is the right court to hear the judicial review application to remove the prosecutors," he said.

Meanwhile Senior Federal Counsel See Mee Chun indicated that a preliminary objection will be made over the application on Tuesday.

Anwar states his reasons

On Aug 11, Anwar filed an application to disqualify all prosecutors involved in his ongoing sodomy trial.

lingam tape panel meeting 031007 abdul gani patail The application was based on the opposition leader’s contention that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail was “biased and/or prejudiced in the prosecution of our client.”

In his application, Anwar, who is PKR's de facto leader, had named the seven prosecutors he wanted disqualified.

They are Solicitor-General 1 Idrus Harun who is leading the prosecution team on behalf of the AG, Solicitor-General II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden and prosecution officers Nordin Hassan, Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria, Wong Chiang Kiat, Shamsul Sulaiman and Noorin Badaruddin.

He claimed that the seven were unqualified to represent the AG's Chambers to prosecute the sodomy case against him.

He wanted the court to order their removal or grant a prohibition against them from appearing on behalf of the AG.

Anwar also stated his reasons in seeking the removal of the prosecutors in his affidavit.

He said he feared that the prosecutors would act with bias in the case. Alternatively, he said, there was a reasonable apprehension of bias or a real danger of bias on the part of the prosecution team.

He said this was due to the role played by some of the prosecutors during his two trials in 1998.

He further claimed that there were also prosecutorial misconducts in the present sodomy case which prejudiced the case against him.

"There is a continuation of a conspiracy against me perpetrated by the prosecution team," he said in his affidavit.

Political conspiracies

His counsel SN Nair had said that his client possessed evidence of the alleged political conspiracies in respect of the first two cases of sodomy and corrupt practices in 1998 and the black eye incident.

anwar arrest sankara nair pc 160708 01 This also included Abdul Gani's 'stealthy involvement' in the matter, he added.

He said all prosecutors worked under the control, direction and instructions of the AG, and as such, their actions were in no uncertain terms deemed to be that of the AG.

"Furthermore, Abdul Gani's signing of the Section 418A certificate (to prefer the charge) is strongly indicative of the fact that he is the person behind the scenes, pulling and manipulating the strings of the prosecutors to his tune," he added.

The lawyer claimed that allowing the AG to continue to pursue the sodomy action would undoubtedly be tantamount to a travesty of justice.