Jan 18 hearing of Anwar’s appeal over Pardons Board’s decision

PUTRAJAYA: The appeal by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his family against the Pardons Board’s rejection of his petition for a royal pardon over his sodomy conviction will be heard at the Court of Appeal on Jan 18.

Anwar is appealing against the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissal on July 15 last year of his bid to obtain leave to commence a judicial review to quash the Pardons Board’s decision.

Anwar’s lawyer Shahid Adli Kamarudin told reporters that Jan 18 had been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.

He said parties in the matter - Anwar and the respondents, the Pardons Board, the AttorneyGeneral and the Malaysian government - would file their submissions today. Federal counsel Haryati Ahmad appeared for the respondents.

The matter came up for case management today before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Nur Yusliana Yusoff.

Anwar, 69, is serving a five-year jail term after he losing his appeal at the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015, to set aside his conviction on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 31, in 2008.

The Federal Court, on Dec 14 last year, also dismissed Anwar’s application to review the Federal Court’s previous decision.

On June 24, 2015, Anwar and his family members - wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and daughters Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha - filed the legal challenge against the board’s dismissal of the pardons petition on March 16 of the same year. On July 15 last year, the High Court also dismissed Anwar’s application to refer questions of law to the Federal Court for deliberation on the decision-making process of the Pardons Board. — Bernama