KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial was adjourned to today because his lead counsel Karpal Singh was unwell.
Justice Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah allowed one of Anwar’s counsel Ram Karpal’s application for an adjournment, awaiting test results of blood samples taken from Karpal.
Ram told the court that Karpal was still unwell when he met his father yesterday morning.
Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohamed Yusof Zainal Abiden, who led the prosecution team, had no objection to the adjournment as they were aware that Karpal was already unwell since Monday.
He asked the defence team to make the necessary arrangement to continue with the cross-examination on Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) general surgeon Dr Mohd Razali Ibrahim, who was quizzed by Karpal on Monday.
Justice Zabidin informed the defence team that another lawyer from the team had to take over the cross-examination, if Karpal could not be present today.
Karpal was scheduled to continue his cross-examination yesterday on Dr Mohd Razali at the trial of Anwar, who is charged with sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 25, at Unit 11-5-1 of Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara, between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
On Monday, Dr Mohd Razali, the second prosecution witness in his testimony revealed the existence of an initial medical report on the history and examination of the complainant, Mohd Saiful.
Yesterday, he was expected to produce the report prepared by him and two other HKL specialists after they examined Mohd Saiful for three hours on the night of June 28, 2008.
The report was kept at HKL and was also not tendered in court as evidence.
The report was done before a full medical report dated July 13.
However, the July 13 report was tendered to the court as evidence.
Outside the court, one of Anwar’s lawyer S N Nair told reporters that Karpal had diarrhoea and was also suspected of having dengue. — Bernama