DAP Chairman Karpal Singh should be called as prosecution witness in Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial following revelations of Karpal's views on Anwar's sodomy trial in 1997.

NONE The Association of Muslim Lawyers (PPMM) president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar said today in Kuala Lumpur that further investigations must be conducted on Karpal's ( left ) views.

"For us in PPMM, when an issue like this crop up, our view is that it must be investigated. In a criminal case, there is no time frame unlike civil cases whereby investigations must be done within six years," he told Bernama when asked to comment on Bayan Baru Member of Parliament Zahrain Hashim's claims yesterday.

Zahrain in his statement had urged the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail to look at the case more seriously and call up Karpal as a prosecution witness over his views with regard to Anwar's sodomy case that he had raised in Parliament back in 1997.

According to the Parliament Hansard dated Oct 22, 1997, Karpal who has been the DAP Chairman since 1997, had during debate, claimed that he had documents to show Anwar's involvement in the sodomy case and urged the government to investigate.

Fourth person

Zahrain was the fourth person to call for such an action after Wangsa Maju Member of Parliament Wee Choo Keong, Parti Keadilan Insan Tanah Air (KITA) president Zaid Ibrahim and Kulim Bandar Baru Member of Parliament Zulkifli Nordin, who had also questioned Karpal's motive to become Anwar's counsel in the current sodomy case. NONE

Wee ( right ) had raised the issue during a debate to suspend Anwar from the Dewan Rakyat session in December and accused Karpal as a 'flip-flop' MP for changing his views on Anwar.

Zaid had labeled Karpal as ular (snake) due to his differing statements on Anwar, since Karpal who had in 1997 called on the government to investigate Anwar's sodomy case has now contradicted himself by defending Anwar in the current sodomy trial.

  Motive questioned

A similar sentiment was raised by Zulkifli in his blog on Dec 16, questioning Karpal's motive to defend Anwar after having accused Anwar of sodomy earlier.

Meanwhile, Karpal in a statement today said, he cannot see how he can give any material evidence in Anwar's ongoing sodomy trial involving Mohd Saiful as the latter had been cleared by the Federal Court.

Anwar was freed by the Federal Court of the charge of sodomy against him involving Azizan Abu Bakar on September 2, 2004, when a panel of three judges overturned the sodomy conviction by 2 to 1, finding contradictions in the prosecution's case.

Karpal however, admitted that in 1997 he had called for Anwar to be investigated following Azizan's allegation that Anwar had sodomised him when met at his Kuala Lumpur office.

"I was in fact, subpoenaed as a prosecution witness in that trial, in which initially I defended Sukma," Karpal said and added that he was then invited by Anwar to joint Anwar's defence team in the course of the trial, in which he did.

- Bernama