KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will file a petition of appeal over his five-year jail sentence for sodomy as the deadline expires today.
Zaleha Al-Hayat, who is co-counsel for Anwar, told the media that the defence would file the petition at the Federal Court registry.
Ramkarpal Singh, who is also Anwar’s counsel, is preparing the petition, together with the grounds of the appeal.
Zaleha said the legal firm, Karpal & Co on Tuesday sent a letter to the Federal Court registry, asking for a two-week extension of time to file the petition because of the death of lead counsel, the late Karpal Singh last Thursday.
However, she said the court had directed them to file a notice of motion for extension time, instead of sending a letter to the court.
“It’s a risk to file the motion as there has been a lapse of time, so we will file the petition before the date of expiry,” she said.
Zaleha said the defence had 10 days to file the petition of appeal after the firm received the written grounds of judgment from the court on April 14.
She also said senior lawyer Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah, who was previously lead counsel for Anwar in the sodomy case, would once again join the defence to replace the late Karpal Singh.
On July 15, 2009, when the case was called up at the High Court, Sulaiman had discharged himself from representing Anwar on the grounds of ill health.
On March 7, this year, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s Jan 9, 2012 decision which acquitted Anwar on the charge of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 26, at a Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara between 3.10pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
However, the court allowed a stay of execution on the Court of Appeal’s decision, pending an appeal to the Federal Court and granted Anwar bail of RM10,000. — Bernama