The Federal Court today reserved judgement on lawyer Zainur Zakaria's appeal to overturn his three months' jail sentence for contempt of court after hearing submissions from both the defence and prosecution.

Justice Steve Shim Lip Kiong, Chief Justice for Sabah and Sarawak, who headed the three-member panel sitting in Penang since yesterday, did not fix any date for the judgment, but told the parties involved that they will be notified soon.

The decision to reserve judgement came after the prosecution submitted their arguments for about two hours this morning that the verdict upheld by the Court of Appeal on Zainur's guilt be maintained.

Sitting with Shim were justices Haidar Mohamad Noor and Abdul Malik Ahmad.

On Nov 30, 1998, Zainur (photo) was convicted by High Court judge Augustine Paul for contempt after he filed an application for jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim to disqualify DPP Abdul Ghani Patail and Azahar Mohamad as prosecutors in the corruption trial against him.

The application was supported by a statutory declaration and letter from lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon to the then Attorney-General Mohtar Abdullah which alleged that the two prosecutors tried to extract evidence from Anwar's tennis partner S Nallakaruppan who was facing a death penalty for illegal possession of firearms.

Last September, the Court of Appeal had dismissed Zainur's appeal.

Interference with court proceedings

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohammad Yusuf Zainal Abidin who led the prosecution team submitted that Zainur's act in making the application on behalf of Anwar had indeed interfered with the court proceedings.

He agreed with Justice Paul that Anwar's application was baseless as the letter and statutory declaration by lawyer Manjeet Singh was unsubstantiated and could not support his application.

Mohammad Yusof also submitted that mens rea (guilty mind) of the appellate need not be established.

Mohammad Yusof was assisted by DPP K Muniandy and Norbahri Baharuddin.

Yesterday, counsel for Zainur, Raja Aziz Addruse submitted that the application to disqualify the two prosecutors was Anwar's and not Zainur's.

He added that Anwar had the right to make such complaints and that the courts must be accessible to everyone. [#1] Zainur's case a matter of 'shooting the messenger'[/#] , Jan 30)

He also maintained that Justice Paul should have weighed the merits of Anwar's application instead of making a summary dismissal of it by citing Zainur for contempt of court.

Raja Aziz submitted that since contempt of court is a criminal offence, the mens rea (guilty mind) of the offender should be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sulaiman Abdullah, another counsel for Zainur, yesterday submitted that the charge levelled against Zainur is a "clear case of shooting the messenger".