Appellate Court fixes dates for Anwar's bid to pause Yusoff's lawsuit

Summary

• The Court of Appeal fixes June 10 and July 21 to hear Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s applications to stay his civil trial over the alleged sexual assault of a former aide.

• Anwar is appealing a High Court decision rejecting his bid to pause the trial while seeking constitutional clarification on potential legal immunity and abuse of process.

The Court of Appeal has set dates to hear Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s bid to put his sexual assault civil suit on hold, ahead of the case’s next hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 16.

According to a report by Free Malaysia Today, the court has set June 10 to hear Anwar’s application for an interim stay on the proceedings, and July 21 to hear his application for a permanent stay until the outcome of the appeal has been decided.

The report quoted Anwar’s lawyer K Rajasegaran saying that the dates have been fixed following case management before a court registrar this afternoon.

Anwar’s lawyers are filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal to set aside High Court judge Ros Mawar Rozain’s decision on Wednesday to deny Anwar’s bid to suspend the lawsuit and refer eight constitutional questions to the Federal Court.

The civil suit was brought by his former aide Yusoff Rawther, who accused Anwar of sexual assault.

Anwar had sought to put the trial on hold to ask the Federal Court whether he had qualified immunity from legal action, and whether the High Court should conduct a “threshold inquiry” to establish whether the suit amounts to process abuse or poses a threat to the public interest.

The application additionally requests clarification on whether Anwar, in his capacity as the prime minister, is entitled under Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution to “protection from a vexatious litigant” who brings lawsuits that are tactically scheduled or politically orchestrated to compromise his governance capacity.

Roz Mawar had ruled against Anwar and said the trial on June 16 should proceed as scheduled.

“From a judicial perspective, the proposed questions do not appear to meet the threshold of genuine constitutional controversy… what is clear is that not every question touches on the constitutional qualities for referral under Section 84 of the Courts of the Judicature Act 1964.

“This court must be satisfied that the constitutional questions are genuine and material to the resolution of this case, as the Federal Court is not a forum for speculative or defensive advisory opinions.

“This court… is not satisfied, so the application to refer the proposed questions to the Federal Court is declined,” she said.

In their application filed yesterday by the law firm Messrs Zain Megat & Murad on Anwar’s behalf, they argued that the legal questions to the Federal Court would be nugatory if the trial is allowed to proceed.

“The adjournment in the High Court is of utmost importance and is necessary to preserve the principles of justice, equality, and constitutional integrity,” Free Malaysia Today quoted them as saying.

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