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KUALA LUMPUR: Staronline - Thursday 26 Jan 2012
The trial judge in the recently-concluded sodomy case of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has yet to give his written judgment on his grounds for acquitting the Opposition Leader.
The trial judge in the recently-concluded sodomy case of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has yet to give his written judgment on his grounds for acquitting the Opposition Leader.
Anwar’s lead counsel Karpal Singh yesterday said he was informed by Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah’s secretary that the written judgment was still not ready.
Karpal was speaking to reporters after meeting the secretary to know the status of the written judgment at the Jalan Duta court complex.
Anwar was acquitted by the High Court on Jan 9 on the charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan due to lack of corroborative evidence.
The prosecution filed a notice of appeal against the acquittal on Friday.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers filed the notice, signed by Solicitor-General Datuk Idrus Harun, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court criminal registry.
“Once (an) appeal is lodged, the (trial) judge is obliged to write (his) judgment.
“He must write the judgment within eight weeks from the date a notice of appeal is filed,” Karpal said.
Karpal also said the A-G had the power to not proceed with the appeal after perusing the grounds of the judgment by the trial judge.
He added that the Public Prosecutor had the discretion to do so under the law.
Karpal said the Public Prosecutor had 10 days under the Rules of Court of Appeal 1994 to file a petition of appeal upon receiving a record of appeal which contains notes of proceedings, exhibits and the full written judgement.
