There were some tense moments in court today at Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial when his lead defence lawyer, Karpal Singh, came within a hair’s breadth of being cited for contempt of court.

This follows the insinuation made by Karpal that the prosecution may have already known High Court judge Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah’s decision and was ready to object to the defence’s application for a stay of proceeding.

Justice Zabidin had wanted to proceed with the cross-examination of key witness Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan after he dismissed Karpal's application to get the complainant’s statements which he gave to police.

On hearing Zabidin’s decision, Karpal immediately told the court that he had been instructed to apply for an appeal against the judge’s ruling and seek a stay of proceeding.

tan boon hwa sue macc 220709 karpal "This is because whatever the interlocutory ruling, is appealable. This is an important matter as from Saiful's statement, we may find inconsistencies and cite the witness with impeachment,” he said.

"Since Saiful is the star witness, and should the appellate court be with us and we continue to cite the complainant with contempt, the prosecution's case will crumble.

"If a witness is impeach, he loses his credibility and the testimony is worthless.

"The testimony of their star witness turns to stardust, nothing remains."

However, solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden objected to the stay application and provided case laws to the judge that the appeal should be held back until the end of the trial.

"This is not the final of the matter. If they want to apply to question the evidence, they could make it at the end of the case, and not now," he said.

In response, Karpal said the prosecution had apparently come better prepared by providing case laws as if they knew the outcome of the judge's decision.

Mohd Yusof retorted that they had to prepare for all possible eventualities.

Karpal again said this implied that the prosecution already knew the outcome of today’s decision.

Judge warns of contempt proceeding

Justice Zabidin subsequently warned that he could initiate contempt proceeding just before ordering a short break.

Although Zabidin did not name who he was referring to, it was obvious he was targeting Karpal for suggesting that the prosecution knew his decision before he made his announcement this morning.

After a 10-minute break, Karpal stood up in court to explain that what he had wanted to say was that the defence needed time to submit on the stay application.

azlan "The prosecution has come better prepared with case laws. We need time to do our research," he said.

Zabidin then asked Karpal how long he would need to prepare his arguments.

“Half an hour. Make it an hour," said Karpal.

Following this, Zabidin called for a one-hour break for Karpal to find the necessary case laws to support of his stay application.

When the court resumed, Karpal told the judge that the court should allow a stay as the defence had to file an affidavit along with a notice of motion.

"We are prepared to file it this afternoon. This is a requirement set by the Federal Court - that an affidavit must be filed," he said.

The judge later ruled that until a proper application is filed, the trial should continue.

Subsequently, Saiful took the stand and the defence continued its cross-examination of the star witness.