Premier Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor will not be testifying in the Sodomy II trial as they are "not material witnesses".

najib razak and rosmah mansor 1 This follows the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision today to throw out the subpoenas served on them to testify as defence witnesses in Anwar Ibrahim's trial.

In allowing Najib and Rosmah"s application to be set aside, justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said they are not relevant and material witnesses in the trial.

Zabidin issued the subpoenas last month but he ruled in favour of an application by the couple to strike them out, saying the defence failed to show their involvement.

"Hence, I allow the applications and order the trial to continue," the judge said.

Najib has admitted meeting Anwar's accuser Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan two days before the alleged sodomy, but both he and Rosmah deny any connection to the case.

They were represented by lawyers Ghazi Ishak, who is third prime minister Hussein Onn's son-in law, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Salehuddin Saidin, M Athimulan and Affifuddin Mohd Afifi.

The defence had tried to interview the duo in August, but both refused to be defence witnesses, saying that they would do so only if subpoenaed.

However, after the subpoenaes had been issued, they chose to apply to set them aside.

Anwar ‘disappointed’ by ruling

In an immediate reaction to the decision, Anwar said he was bitterly disappointed with the ruling.

He reiterated that both Najib and Rosmah were part of a political conspiracy hatched against him.

NONE "We have evidence to support that (the duo were involved)... Our position is that this was planned. He (Najib) should come and deny it," he said.

"The prosecution offered Najib and Rosmah as witnesses. If they are not relevant, why were they offered?" said an outraged Anwar.

This is the second time where a Malaysian premier had been summoned to give evidence in the Anwar trials, and both applications were subsequently rejected.

In the 1998 sodomy and abuse of power trials, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad was successful in setting aside the subpoena for him to take the witness stand.

But unlike this second sodomy trial, Mahathir was not on the prosecution witness list.

Anwar, 64, is charged with sodomising a young male aide in June 2008, but he denies the allegations and says they were cooked up with Najib's involvement in an attempt to cripple the opposition's chances in coming elections.

Lead counsel Karpal Singh said he will file an appeal over today’s court decision which struck out the subpoenaes served on Najib and Rosmah.

“It was a brief decision and he did not provide any reasons on why he allowed the application.

“He is given two or three days to think over it and he should state the reasons. We will file the appeal at the Court of Appeal tomorrow.”

 

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