PKR today defended its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim’s unsworn statement, equalling it to the action of renowned anti-apartheid politician Nelson Mandela, which is a “powerful tool against an unjust legal and political establishment”.

In a hard-hitting statement issued today, PKR vice-president N Surendran explained Anwar’s decision to make an unsworn statement from the dock in his second sodomy trial yesterday, which has been criticised by detractors as a political move to attack the judiciary and ruling parties.

nurul izzah history 300307 nelson mandela Instead of denying this, Surendran said that Anwar has conceded that the outcome of the sodomy trial is a foregone conclusion.

“Now he has taken this judicial persecution and turned it into a weapon for the betterment of the nation.”

Knowing that less weight would be given to his unsworn testimony, Surendran said Anwar’s decision is a searing protest against an unjust legal and political system, an eloquent indictment of that system and a powerful call for reform and change.

“By refusing to testify and daring them to do their worst, Anwar has put the legal and political establishment itself on trial.”

He said through this single, public act of principled defiance, Anwar has demonstrated the shocking extent to which our justice system has been reduced to being a tool of those who are in power now.

Surendran then drew similarities between Anwar and former South African president Mandela, who once also chose to give an unsworn statement from the dock during his political trial.

‘Mandela exposed the evils of apartheid’

“Mandela used his now famous statement in the Rivonia sham trial to expose the evils of the apartheid regime to the scrutiny of the world.

anwar in south africa 011204 nelson mandela “Like Anwar after him, Mandela ( right in photo ) realised that the only possible verdict was ‘guilty’ and preferred to make a full and coherent statement of his struggle rather than let his argument emerge in ‘bits and pieces’ during cross-examination,” said Surendran.

Surendran, who is also a lawyer, explained that the unsworn statement is the fruit of several hundred years of development of the common law.

“In England accused persons were not allowed counsel in felonies until 1836 and the practice thus grew up of allowing the accused person to make an unsworn statement from the dock.

“When the Criminal Evidence Act 1898 finally allowed sworn evidence to be accepted by the court, the right to make an unsworn statement from the dock was expressly preserved so as not to compel an accused person to go into the witness box.”

He stressed that this legal right is invaluable to the victim of a political trial, fighting against the entire might of the state.

“What Mandela did in 1963, Anwar did yesterday. Used in a righteous cause, the unsworn statement from the dock is a powerful tool against an unjust legal and political establishment.”

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