Appeals Court lets Sodomy 2 investigator practise law

Former cop Jude Blacious Pereira (pic), who was the investigating officer in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's second sodomy case, kept alive his life-long ambition to practice law when the Court of Appeal today set aside a High Court order that prevented his admission to the Malaysian Bar.

A three-man bench chaired by Datuk Linton Albert said the High Court judge, Datuk Zaleha Yusof, made her ruling based on a notice of objection and notice of caveat filed by the Bar Council.

The judge said any objection to admit a candidate must be done only after a petition was filed.

"We are allowing the appellant’s appeal because he has yet to file his petition to be called to the Bar," he said of the unanimous ruling.

Albert said the court could only hear the council's objection to admit Pereira after he had filed his papers.

The bench ordered the High Court to fixed mention of the case on September 18.

Pereira's counsel, Dominic Selvam, said his client would file his petition before the mention date.

Pereira’s application to practise law after retiring from the police force and completing his chambering was rejected by the Bar Council on the basis that he had not been a “credible witness” in a hearing by the Malaysia Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) on five lawyers arrested for assisting people during a candlelight vigil.

Selvam in his submission told the judges his client had only filed papers to appear in chambers, after completing three months of pupillage in October 2012.

"He did not file a petition to be called to the Bar as he had yet to complete his nine-month pupillage as required under the Legal Profession Act."

Selvam said the council filed its notice of objection and notice of caveat before Pereira submitted his petition for admittance.

High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof had on January 15 this year allowed the council's application to reject Pereira from being admitted to the High Court of Malaya, citing findings of the Suhakam inquiry that he was not fit.

The inquiry, based on the 2009 arrest of five lawyers for allegedly failing to disperse, found Pereira, who was deputy superintendent at Brickfields police, and then district police chief Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, of having acted in bad faith and violating human rights.

In any event, Selvam told the bench today that it was for the Chief Judge of Malaya to determine the good character of a petitioner, not a High Court judge.

"The High Court prematurely decided the matter when there was no petition filed."

Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said the High Court made its ruling after having cited a petition filed by Pereira.

"She did not merely rely on the notices but the petition as well," he said, adding that Zaleha did not make an error that warranted intervention by this court.

Pereira was the main investigating officer in the Sodomy II trial against Anwar Ibrahim, who was initially acquitted on January 12, 2012. He retired with the rank of superintendent in 2012.

On March 7 this year, the Court of Appeal reversed the findings of the High Court and sentenced Anwar to five year's jail. Anwar's final appeal in the Federal Court will be heard on October 28. – September 3, 2014.

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