The Court of Appeal has struck out Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against a peaceful assembly charge related to the Bersih 3 rally as it is incompetent.

As such, Anwar is a free man with regard to the Bersih 3 charges for his participation in a street demonstration.

This follows another panel at the Court of Appeal that on Nov 30 last year ruled that the Magistrate Court's order barring the Bersih 3 rally ‎was defective , and therefore null and void.

In that case, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali ( photo ) and former PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham Shahrin made an application to strike out their charges under ‎the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) due to the magistrate's order.

Anwar h‎ad applied differently by having the court declare Section 4(1) and 4(2) of PAA as unconstitutional, on which he failed in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, before Justice Kamardin Hashim.

The PKR de facto leader was seeking to set aside the two PAA charges levelled against him and two others based on the argument that the rule to bar street demonstrations is unlawful and the contentious section should be declared null and void.

His lawyer ‎Ramkarpal Singh said the matter has become academic following the Nov 30 decision by Justice Linton Albert which declared magistrate Zaki Asyraf's order as illegal, null and void.

Following that, he added, the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur had granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal based on the decision in Azmin and Badrul Hisham's case, which is also applicable to Anwar.

'Nothing to argue'

"As there is no charge ‎before the court and the magistrate's order has become invalid, there is nothing left for us to argue," Ramkarpal said.

Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim then ruled that Anwar's appeal cannot be sustained in the circumstances pertaining to the charge.

"As such, this appeal is not competent and therefore the court strikes out the appeal," Justice Abang Iskandar wrote.

The other two judges sitting with him were Justices Ahmad Asnawi and Zamani A Rahim.

Anwar, along with Azmin and Badrul Hisham, who is known as Chegubard, were charged with taking part in a street protest during the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28, 2013.

Besides Ramkarpal, the other lawyers appearing for Anwar were Sangeet Kaur Deo and R Sivarasa.

DPPs Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and Ishak Mohd Yusof appeared for the prosecution.

Also present in the court were Anwar's wife and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, their children, grandchildren and party supporters.

Medical options

While waiting for proceedings to start, Anwar, who looks thin and was watched over closely by Prisons Department guards, told Malaysiakini that he was thinking of his (medical) options (for treatment) regarding his shoulder injury.

“I now have a clip on my shoulder,” he said of his injury.

It was reported that the former opposition leader is suffering from a shoulder injury sustained prior to his jailing in February, which the family claims requires urgent surgery.

He suffered the injury following a road accident he had last year.