Media leak: Defence fails in contempt bid

Lead prosecutor takes responsibility for leak of affidavit to BN-linked papers.

KUALA LUMPUR: Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers today failed to initiate contempt proceedings against the lead prosecutor for leaking to the press details of the affidavit he was submitting today.

High Court judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said he did not want proceedings in the opposition leader’s sodomy trial to be sidetracked by another trial within a trial.

He made the decision after a 10-minute consultation in chambers with the both the defence and prosecution teams.

The defence saw red over reports appearing today in the BN-linked New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia and also the website Malaysia Today, run by popular blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

The lead prosecutor, Solicitor-General II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, took full responsibility for the leak, which defence lawyer Karpal Singh described as “scandalous and contemptuous”.

Karpal accused Mohd Yusof of answering to politicians, but the prosecutor denied it, saying, “I fight my battles in court.”

Mohd Yusof also said the leak would have little impact on the trial.

The judge told both parties not to do anything that would affect the proceedings of the trial.

Mohd Yusof continued with his submissions on two applications—for the judge to review his March 8 decision disallowing three items as exhibits and for the court to compel Anwar Ibrahim to give up a DNA sample.

Judge too rigid
He said a DNA sample was imperative for justice to be served.

Referring to the towel, water bottle and toothbrush taken from the cell where Anwar was held on July 16 and 17, 2008, Mohd Yusof said the samples taken from the items were fairly obtained because the opposition leader’s arrest was lawful.

“Anwar was in custody for the offence,” he said. “Non-intimate samples can be taken without consent.”
In asking the court to order Anwar to submit a DNA sample, he said the judge was adhering too rigidly to rules and thereby defeating the end of justice.

“What is relevant here is whether the DNA can be matched to the accused,” he said.
Karpal said the “unprecedented application” was based on the presumption that DNA evidence was conclusive.

The court reconvenes tomorrow at 9am, at which point the defence counsel will reply.
This is the second time that Anwar, PKR’s de facto leader, has been charged with sodomy, the first time being in 1998. He was eventually acquitted.

In the current case, the accuser was his former personal aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azan. He alleges that Anwar sodomised him at a condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.
If convicted, Anwar can be jailed for up to 20 years jail and whipped.