The investigating officer in Anwar Ibrahim's second sodomy trial, Jude Blacious Pereira, cannot become a practising lawyer.

This follows the Court of Appeal's unanimous decision today that struck out his petition to be a lawyer as he had failed to comply with an order by the Perak High Court for him to undergo a human rights course organised by the Bar Council and the Perak Bar.

The decision was made by a three-member panel led by Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer.

The Bar Council led by Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Pavendeep Singh was appealing a decision made by Justice SM Komathy Suppiah last March which allowed a varied order to Justice Lee's decision relating to Pereira.

“The court found that another High Court judge cannot make a varied order on a decision made by a previous High Court judge.

“Hence, the petition for admission is dismissed,” ruled Hamid Sultan.

The other judges on the panel were Justice Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid and Justice Zamani A Rahim.

Lawyer Dominic Selvam appeared for Pereira, who is now retired.

With this decision, Pavendeep told Malaysiakini that Pereira cannot practise law unless he appeals today's decision within 30 days.

'Not a credible person'

The Bar had objected to Pereira's admission to the Bar following his actions as Brickfields CID chief to arrest five lawyers who were representing those who were arrested during a candlelight vigil for a human rights activist.

Suhakam had held an inquiry led by senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (photo) and found Pereira not to be a credible witness .

The KL High Court, in hearing the suit filed by the five lawyers, declared their detention as illegal and the Court of Appeal then upheld the decision in favour of the five and awarded damages of RM75,000 each.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court then had on Jan 15 last year allowed the Bar Council to bar Pereira from practising as a lawyer on the grounds that he was not a credible person as stated in the Suhakam findings.

Section 11 (1) of the Legal Profession Act 1976 says that a qualified person must be of good character but the Bar Council cited the Suhakam inquiry report on Pereira's involvement in the arrest of the five.