Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus ruled this morning that judge Mokhtar Sidin would remain in the three-member bench which is currently hearing sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his six-year corruption conviction.

Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus ruled this morning that judge Mokhtar Sidin would remain in the three-member bench which is currently hearing sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his six-year corruption conviction.

Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus ruled this morning that judge Mokhtar Sidin would remain in the three-member bench which is currently hearing sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his six-year corruption conviction.

Anwar caused a stir yesterday when he told the court that he did not want Justice Mokhtar to hear his case because of allegations of corruption against the judge. Mokhtar is one of the three judges hearing Anwar's appeal, the others being Lamin and Ahmad Fairuz.

Anwar applied for Mokhtar to be disqualified because of a decision he (Anwar) made at a meeting he attended while he was deputy prime minister with the Council of Malay Rulers regarding the promotion of Mokhtar from High Court to the Court of Appeal.

"I represented the Prime Minister at a meeting with the Malay rulers to decide, among other things, the elevation of Mokhtar Sidin as a Court of Appeal judge. Before the meeting started, the rulers brought up the issue pertaining to allegations of corruption against Mokhtar, and that the elevation be cancelled," he said.

"They discussed with me, and I asked the elevation to be postponed to enable me to bring the matter up with the PM for his consideration and further investigation. The meeting then decided to postpone the elevation, without giving any reason, on my advice," he added.

He said that he made the application to ensure that "my appeal, which is already precarious, is not further pressured by the prejudice of Mokhtar because of my decision at the meeting."

Lamin, however, told the court today that "the decision made by Anwar has no bearing on this case."

"The content of advice (given by Anwar) has nothing to do with the hearing of this case," added Lamin, who also said that Mokhtar told him and panel member judge Ahmad that he had nothing against the appellant.

"He (Mokhtar) has given an assurance that he will perform his task without fear or favour," said Lamin.

Lamin went on to say that appointment can no longer be the subject of argument. He added that in the final analysis, the appointment of the judge was a matter between Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and the Agong.

"It does not even become the concern of the DPM," said Lamin.

He also advised that any further application to the bench by the appellant should be done through his counsel.

Lead defence counsel Raja Aziz Addruse told the court that they accepted the decision made by the bench.

The defence is continuing today their submission on Anwar's appeal, which began on Monday.

Anwar is appealing against Justice Augustine Paul's decision on April 14 last year. Paul found Anwar guilty of interfering in police probes into allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by former driver Azizan Abu Bakar and Ummi Hafilda Ali, sister of Anwar's former political secretary.

Anwar is also standing trial for a separate charge of sodomy and sexual misconduct with adopted brother Sukma Dermawan Sasmitaat Madja.

Anwar has repeatedly denied all charges and says they were fabricated to end his political careeer.

Meanwhile, the appeal hearing of Anwar's counsel Zainur Zakaria, which was scheduled to be heard today, was postponed to next Thursday.

Zainur was charged for contempt of court for filing an application to discharge lead public prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail and senior prosecutor Azahar Mohamed.

Zainur filed the application last year on behalf of Anwar who accused the prosecution of trying to get a confession on Anwar's alleged sexual misconduct from businessman friend S. Nallakaruppan thorugh's the latter's counsel Manjit Singh Dillon.