Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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PUTRAJAYA: Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who had accused Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him, is a credible witness, Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria says in his judgment, The Malaysian Insider reported.

“We find PW1 [Saiful] to be a credible witness,” said Arifin when reading the decision of the five-member Federal Court on the appeal by Anwar against his conviction for sodomising his former aide.

“We find ample corroborative evidence to support Saiful’s testimony,” he said, noting that the trial judge had also found ample corroborative evidence that he was sodomised.

“We have no reason to disturb this finding,” Arifin said.

He said the trial judge had exercised his discretion correctly in dismissing the application to impeach Mohd Saiful. He also said that the carpet was not critical in this case in light of other compelling evidence.

He said he found no transgression of the law or breach of Anwar’s constitutional rights when the items he used in the lock-up were used for DNA testing.

Arifin also said that Anwar did not dispute that he was in the condominium and that Mohd Saiful was also there. “We hold there is no merit to the complaint of political conspiracy.

“A mere denial [from Anwar] does not mean it could be accepted. A political conspiracy allegation remains unsubstantiated,” he said.

Earlier, Arifin pointed out that consent was not an ingredient of a sodomy offence under the Penal Code.

He added that Mohd Saiful had worked as a volunteer and served as Anwar’s assistant.

The bench held that Mohd Saiful was courageous to take on Anwar.

“It takes a lot of courage for a young man like him to make such a disparaging complaint against a well-known politician like the appellant.

“Knowing that such an allegation might taint him, we cannot ignore the lifelong negative effect such a serious allegation would have on him and his family even if it was proven to be true,” Arifin said.

The chief justice, when delivering the unanimous judgment of the court which took him two hours to read, said the minute details given by Mohd Saiful gave his testimony the “ring of truth”.

“Unless he had personally experienced the incident, he would be unable to relate the antecedent facts and the sexual acts in such minute details,” he said.

Arifin said that despite the lengthy cross-examination, Mohd Saiful withstood the gruelling session which the trial judge described as “sometimes bordering on harassment”.

He added that Mohd Saiful had also spoken about the previous encounters he had with Anwar, the unpleasant sensation of pain and the reason for bringing the KY jelly, a lubricant.

“He hid nothing. The trial judge found him to be completely open and honest, and the Court of Appeal agreed with this finding,” he said, in upholding Mohd Saiful’s credibility.

The Federal Court judgment yesterday also held that the items taken from the prison cell where Anwar spent the night on July 16, 2008 before he was charged — a towel, toothbrush, mineral water bottle — were admissible as evidence although obtained through trickery.

This DNA was used to match the DNA of male “Y” chromosome recovered from Mohd Saiful’s anus.

The defence had contended that illegally obtained evidence cannot be used for DNA purposes against Anwar. The defence had also maintained that Anwar had never used the items.

However, yesterday, Arifin said that it was the finding of the court that there was direct and strong circumstantial evidence pointing to Anwar using those exhibits.

“The lock-up was solely occupied by the appellant and there was no dispute on this,” he said.

Arifin also agreed with the Court of Appeal finding that there had been no degradation of the DNA samples taken from Mohd Saiful’s anus some 56 hours after the alleged sodomy act took place, where it took another 40 hours for the samples to reach government chemist Dr Seah Lay Hong.

The defence had contended that it was impossible for the samples to be in pristine condition and had expressed surprise it was deemed “fresh”, thereby pointing out that it could have been compromised during the transfer process.

But Arifin said that it was never the prosecution’s case that the samples were in pristine condition.

He added that Dr Seah had conceded under cross-examination that the samples had undergone some degradation but the DNA was still readable.

“If the DNA was completely degraded, it means no DNA profile could be obtained or developed,” he said.

Commenting on the judgment, the government called on all parties to respect the legal process in the conviction of Anwar, Bernama reported.

“The judges will have reached their verdict only after considering all the evidence in a balanced and objective manner,” a government spokesman said.

“In this case, exhaustive and comprehensive due process has been followed over many years. That process is now complete, and we call on all parties involved to respect the legal process and the judgement,” said the spokesman in a three-paragraph statement.

The spokesman also stated that Malaysia has an independent judiciary, and there have been many rulings against senior government figures.

The police report against Anwar was lodged by a private individual, Anwar’s employee and personal assistant, not by the government, said the spokesman.

“As the victim of a serious sexual assault, he had every right to have his case heard in court,” said the spokesperson.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 11, 2015.

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