Decision on Anwar’s bid to interview PM on Aug 8

0

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has fixed Aug 8, to decide on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s application to interview 15 witnesses, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, for his ongoing sodomy trial.

Judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah set the date after Anwar’s counsel, Karpal Singh, and Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohamed Yusof Zainal Abiden leading the prosecution team, concluded their submissions.

In the application, Anwar is seeking a court order to direct the prosecution to ensure the attendance of the witnesses, who were offered by the prosecution at the end of their case, to court, for the defence to interview.

He wants to interview Najib, Rosmah, Hasanuddin Abd Hamid, the owner of the condominium unit where the incident allegedly occurred, former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and ex-Melaka police chief Datuk Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof.

He also wants to interview 10 alibi witnesses before he takes the stand on Monday.

The 15 witnesses are among 25 witnesses the defence wants to interview to prepare for the defence case scheduled for Aug 8 to 26.

At the close of their case, the prosecution offered 71 witnesses, of whom the defence chose to interview 25. Of the 25, only five have been interviewed, so far.

They are ex-sprint queen Datuk Mumtaz Jaafar, Dr Mohd Osman Abd Hamid, formerly of Pusrawi, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s youngest sister, Saidaiti Azlan, a Kuala Lumpur Hospital doctor known as Dr Daniel, and Khairil Anaz Yusof, a special assistant to Najib when he was deputy prime minister.

At the outset, Karpal submitted that the prosecution should have brought the witnesses to court for the defence to interview as the prosecution had offered them to the defence team.

Karpal said the defence team should have been given the right to interview them which was provided for under the law.

Mohamed Yusof submitted that Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria’s affidavit to reply to Anwar’s application had stated that Najib, Rosmah, Musa and Mohd Rodwan had refused to be interviewed as they were not material witnesses to the charge.

However, he said they would only be interviewed if they were subpoenaed.

On May 16, Mohamad Zabidin ordered Anwar to enter his defence after ruling that the latter’s former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the complainant in the case, was a truthful and credible witness.

Anwar, 63, pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court on Aug 7, 2008, to committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature at Kondominium Desa Damansara in Bukit Damansara between 3.10pm and 4.30pm on June 26, the same year. — Bernama