Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) has expressed disappointment over what it claims is a "dubious process" in the selection of the judges who will hear the final appeal of jailed ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim against his sodomy conviction at the Federal Court on Monday.

Party vice-president Tian Chua ( third from left ) said "trusted sources" have revealed to the party that three relatively junior judges have been assigned to hear the appeal, Anwar's last legal avenue.

"We have been alerted to the dubious process involved in the selection of these three judges who are Abdul Hamid Mohamad, Rahmah Hussain and Tengku Baharudin Shah Tengku Mahmud.

"We challenge the competency of these judges to hear the appeal. It is unacceptable that not even one senior Federal Court judge was included," Tian Chua told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

The three judges named by Tian Chua were all elevated from a lower court during judiciary promotions last July. Abdul Hamid and Rahmah were promoted to the Federal Court while Tengku Baharudin Shah is from the Court of Appeal.

It is believed that three junior judges were chosen because most of the senior Federal Court justices have already heard cases involving Anwar, which rules them from hearing this appeal.

However, there are two remaining senior judges - Abdul Malek Ahmad and Siti Norma Yaakob - who have yet to hear any of Anwar's cases. Party leaders felt that these two should have been included in the three-member panel.

Bail hearing

Tian Chua also said it was odd that Anwar's important and high profile appeal be determined only by a three-person bench, in spite of his counsel's request for a full five-member panel.

"It seems that the same pattern of manipulation of the judiciary is persisting throughout all levels of Anwar's trial. The selection of judges has been highly politicised.

"Junior and inexperienced judges are selected and promoted not based on merit, but rather their willingness to comply with political instructions," he said.

Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair ( left ) told malaysiakini that he had filed a request at the Federal Court yesterday reiterating his earlier application for a full bench hearing for his client but this was rejected.

Anwar was found guilty of sodomising Azizan Abu Bakar by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Aug 8, 2000 and sentenced to nine years jail. Azizan is the former driver of his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is Keadilan's president.

Apart from the appeal against the sodomy conviction's nine-year jail sentence, the Federal Court will also hear Anwar's application for bail.

A similar appeal and bail application by Anwar's co-accused and adopted brother, Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja, will also be heard by the judges. Sukma was sentenced to six years jail and four strokes of the rotan (cane) for abetting Anwar.

In the event the duo fail to set aside their convictions, Anwar would only be freed in 2009 at the earliest while Sukma would have to undergo the execution of his whipping sentence.

Testing ground

Tian Chua said Anwar's final hearing represents a testing ground for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's 'new-style leadership' besides being an indicator for the legitimacy of the Malaysian judiciary system.

He said although Abdullah has presented himself as a reformer, he appears "to be determined to preserve his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad's legacy of blatant intervention in the judicial process".

"If the new prime minister fails to act with integrity and adopt a genuine hands-off approach (to the judiciary), the high expectations the general public have of him will fast turn into disappointment.

"He will also signal to the world that hope for reform and recreation of an independent judiciary in Malaysia has once again been sacrificed to political greed and self-preservation," said Tian Chua.

The Keadilan leader said Anwar's hearing has attracted worldwide attention with several prominent international organisations confirming that they would be sending their representatives to observe Monday's proceedings.

They include the International Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Bar Association, the International Court of Justice, the Australian Bar and the Western Australian Criminal Bar.

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan and former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) have also sent messages to express their support and concerns over both Anwar's approaching hearing and his health, said Tian Chua.

He added that the government's approach in continuing to incarcerate Anwar in hope that the former deputy premier would eventually fade from public consciousness would eventually be proven wrong.

"Even if news on Anwar is totally blacked out from the local mass media, he will continue to be a focus of international concern," Tian Chua said.

Slipped disc

Also present at the press conference were Keadilan leaders Khalid Jaafar and Irene Fernandez, DAP Seputeh parliamentarian Teresa Kok, Parti Sosialis Malaysia pro-tem president Dr Nasir Hashim and Suaram executive director Cynthia Gabriel and coordinator Yap Swee Seng.

Fernandez - who is Tenaganita director - said bail should be granted to allow Anwar to travel abroad to receive medical treatment for his slipped disc, which according to him was aggravated by a police assault when he was first arrested.

PSM's Nasir said he was upset over the political interference in Anwar's trial with the judiciary now becoming a "bureaucratic branch" of the government.

DAP's Kok said the image of the country's judiciary had been tarnished and this itself had been stated in an international report entitled 'Justice in Jeopardy 2000' published by the International Bar Association.

Gabriel, of the non-governmental organisation Suaram, said Anwar's case had been "systematically organised and arranged to keep the public eye away from what was actually happening".

She also released a statement from the International Federation of Human Rights which called for a fair appeal hearing for the ex-deputy premier.