PUTRAJAYA: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyers argued yesterday that both the High Court and the Court of Appeal had not given adequate weight to Anwar’s statement from the dock in his Sodomy II case.

Counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram submitted on the issue of Anwar abandoning his alibis, which had been cited by the Court of Appeal as among its reasons for finding Anwar guilty in March.

Sri Ram said that although these abandoned alibis were not raised as a point of contention by the prosecution during the appeal, the Court of Appeal had zoomed in on this.

“[The function of the Court of Appeal] was to review findings of facts made by the trial court. [It is] not part of appeals court’s judgement to make findings of its own,” he argued.

The Court of Appeal had said that Anwar’s decision to issue a statement from the dock did not amount to more than a “bare denial”.  It went on to say: “The defence of alibi was abandoned. Anwar’s line of defence was that of alibi of which he had given notice before the start of the trial.

“But at the trial, it appears this defence was never pursued for reasons best known to him”.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 29, 2014.