Anwar fails in final bid to stop Shafee from prosecuting sodomy appeal
Putrajaya's appeal in the sodomy acquittal of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will go on as scheduled after the opposition leader failed in his final bid to stop Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah from leading the prosecution team at the Court of Appeal tomorrow.
A five-man Federal Court bench chaired by Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong this afternoon which dismissed Anwar's stay application said there were no exceptional circumstances.
Hamid said the basis of the application was that Shafee’s appointment was a conflict of interest and that he was not a fit and proper person.
"We find no merit in the application and there is no reason to disturb the refusal of the Court of Appeal to grant Anwar a stay," he said of the unanimous decision.
Shafee submitted that the stay should be refused as it was to delay the public prosecutor's sodomy appeal.
He said Anwar's third appeal to disqualify him was doomed to fail in the Federal Court as both grounds (not fit and proper, and in conflict of interest) had been raised and decided in two other previous applications.
Lawyer Karpal Singh said every opportunity should be given to Anwar to exhaust his appeal before the sodomy case started.
Anwar filed his stay application and notice of appeal in the Federal Court registry this morning.
The hearing was fixed at short notice after Karpal and another counsel Sivarasa Rasiah met Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria in his chambers this afternoon.
Shafee told the Court of Appeal on Monday that all of Anwar's attempts to disqualify him as lead prosecutor were merely to delay the sodomy appeal.
The three-man Court of Appeal bench led by Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi then ruled that Shafee could not be regarded as unfit and not proper to lead the prosecution team just because the disciplinary board found him guilty of misconduct.
He said although the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board had found Shafee guilty of misconduct, it was for the public prosecutor to determine whether he was a fit and proper person to lead the prosecution team in the sodomy case.
Balia ruled that Anwar's application was frivolous and vexatious, and an abuse of the court process as it was made to delay the appeal. He also refused to grant a stay pending an appeal to the Federal Court.
Anwar had filed the third application to disqualify Shafee on grounds he was not fit and proper as he was fined RM5,000 for professional misconduct by the board.
He also said there would be a conflict of interest as Shafee previously found the investigating officer for the sodomy case, Jude Blacious Pereira, an untruthful witness in a Suhakam inquiry.
Anwar first challenged the legality of Shafee's appointment under the Criminal Procedure Code, but this was dismissed by the Federal Court last November 20.
His second application to disqualify Shafee, based on a statutory declaration by former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, was also dismissed by the Federal Court on February 11.
On January 9, 2012, Anwar, 66, was acquitted by the High Court on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a condominium unit in Bukit Damansara in 2008. – March 5, 2014.
