YOURSAY The answer, my friends, is who has more to lose? Anwar or Najib?
Optimistic Shafee guns for heavier sentence
Ferdtan: The judges may need one to two weeks to write the judgment and he expects it to be a full written judgment, said government-appointed prosecutor Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
First how did he know the judges will take that long for the judgment? After all, he is not one of the deciding judges. Has he some privileged information?
Why it is so different compared to the previous Court of Appeal hearing, before the ‘Kajang Move’ by-election nomination, when the appellate court reversed the ‘not guilty’ High Court judgment in a matter of two days, working overtime, to sentence Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to five years’ jail?
The perception of the public is that this is not a typical criminal trial but a political one. Now the political dilemma starts, as in William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. “To be, or not to be...” - to put Anwar in jail or free him? Both equally have grave consequences.
If Anwar goes to jail, the BN government may be troubled or weakened by expected many reformasi demonstrations. The opposing faction in Umno, the pro-Mahathir Mohamad, may seize this opportunity to further pressure its president to step down.
If Anwar is free, he lives another day to fight for Pakatan Rakyat. So what? The government still has a hold on him - he has another criminal case to answer under the sedition charge.
The answer, my friends, is who has more to lose? Anwar or Najib?
Clongviews: Indeed, before the judges could make a decision, chief prosecutor Shafee had already assumed that it would take one to two weeks to write the judgment, and secondly his plan to submit for an enhancement of the sentence.
He sounds so vindictive and hopefully the judges would take note of this.
Vijay47: Shafee claims that the five-year sentence for Anwar is "manifestly inadequate". How is it manifestly inadequate?
I have never heard of a single person being charged for sodomy in Malaysia all these years. So is the five years demanded of Anwar to make up for the fact that no one else has been prosecuted for this offence, let alone being sent to prison?
It looks like this is a cross Anwar has to bear for the AG's (attorney-general’s) bias.
Anonymous_ABG: Let us not pass judgment on the performance of the judges who had patiently heard submissions from both parties and we can proudly say DSAI’s (Anwar’s) defence team did a marvelous job.
Let’s give time to the judges to write their judgment. We all know Shafee did a monkey dance which would be evaluated by the judges accordingly.
I have never seen a lawyer who is vindictively blood thirsty. Let us pray for a fair and firm judgment based on the evidence put before the judges.
Chapati: Beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest standard of proof that must be met in any trial, and very much so when it involves a criminal case.
There are so much doubts and assumptions the prosecution failed to proof and address. Saiful Bukhari Azlan's claim that he was forcefully sodomised and the act was vigorous and fast and he suffered pain.
But medical examination does not show even a microtrauma to his anal passage which serves as an indicator for penetration. Based on this basis, the defendent should be acquitted.
The world's legal fraternity is observing this case closely and any misjudgement would be extremely shameful to our country's legal system.
Telestai!: The sad thing about this episode is the Malaysian populace putting up with a government bent on persecuting its political opponents using filthy tactics. Sadder still is young Malaysians getting a daily dose of this rotten and toxic stuff.
Anwar may or may not be guilty of apparent consensual sex but why is it the public's business? Where is the country heading?
Malaysian 1st: "They have only tried to create doubt that sample taken from the cell is not 'Male Y',” said Shafee.
Isn't creating doubt is what lawyers do in criminal cases? Defence lawyer Gopal Sri Ram has punched many holes in the prosecution case. Shafee's job is to prove his points beyond an iota of doubt, plugging all the holes and make them water tight. He has miserably failed to do that.
To be fair to Anwar, the whole case should have been heard by the Syariah Court since Anwar and Saiful are Muslims. Then we can see how they are going to prove penetration.
In spite of all these good arguments, I won't be surprised if Anwar is convicted. This is Malaysian politics.
Pemerhati: Four of the five judges on the panel have been criticised by law experts for their previous ridiculous and questionable judgements against Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar, and thus have established their ‘kangaroo credentials’.
They could have become ‘kangaroos’ out of fear if they or their close family members had made themselves vulnerable to prosecution due to some wrongdoing or if they may have been promised some material rewards by PM Najib.
If it is a ‘guilty’ verdict then they will think of some ridiculous reasons to justify that verdict as they have done in the past. If it is the correct ‘not guilty verdict’ then it could mean that Najib has a different plan to get rid of Anwar.
SSRMan: “Shafee also denied that the charge imposed on Anwar was politically motivated as in the past the prosecution had imposed charges on former Selangor MB Harun Idris, and also ex-youth and sports minister Mokhtar Hashim.”
Does that mean or prove that the charges imposed on the two Umno politicians were not politically motivated?
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