Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today filed an application with the Syariah Court of Appeal to disqualify the lawyer representing the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi) in his suit against the department.

His application named syariah lawyer Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar as respondent.

NONE The syariah legal practitioner is acting for Jawi’s prosecution department head, the Jawi director and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom.

The trio are locked in a legal battle with Anwar over Jawi’s unwilingness to try the qazaf (wrongful accusation of a sexual offence) case brought up by him against Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in his ongoing second sodomy trial.

“Zainul acted unprofessionally, was dishonest, acted with bad intent contrary to upholding justice and has breached the syariah lawyers code of ethics,” said Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman ( above ), who represented Anwar in the matter.

NONE Talking to reporters at the Federal Territory Syariah Court complex after filing the application, Kamar Ainiah added that Zainul ( far left, in photo ) has exhibited all the above in his statement made to the media.

However, she was unable to disclose how exactly these statements breached the syariah lawyers code of ethics or which statements displayed which misconduct.

“I cannot go into specifics as I need to serve the application to the lawyer first,” explained Kamar Ainiah.

She added that she is not sure how long the court will process the application, but believed that both parties may be called to hear the matter sometime in October.

Anwar, accompanied by his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was also there to submit his application.

The Syariah High Court had on April 14 threw out Anwar’s qazaf application when the judge ruled that the court should not interfere in the chief prosecutor’s task to institute legal action against Saiful.

Anwar is seeking to compel the syariah chief prosecutor to institute legal action against Saiful for allegedly lying and not producing the four required witnesses as in Islamic law, to back his sodomy allegation against the opposition leader.

The opposition leader filed his appeal to the country’s highest Islamic court, the Syariah Court of Appeal. It is for this appeals process that Anwar wanted to disqualify Zainul Rijal from representing Jais. 

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