Anwar, family seek to quash board’s ruling
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his family members yesterday filed a legal action to quash the Pardons Board’s dismissal of his petition for a royal pardon over his sodomy conviction.
The former opposition leader, his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and daughters Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha filed leave for a judicial review application at the High Court Registry, here.
The application, filed through Messrs Daim & Gamany, named the Pardons Board, the Attorney-General, and the Malaysian government as respondents.
In the application, they sought an order to quash the decision of the board on March 16 and to compel it to advise the Yang DiPertuan Agong to pardon and release Anwar, 67. They also sought a mandamus order to compel the board to re-convene a meeting and to consider all materials relating to the petition for a royal pardon submitted by Anwar’s family members and to give appropriate advice to the King.
Anwar in his affidavit to support the application claimed that the decision by the board was arrived at in breach of the rules of natural justice and was therefore void. Anwar contended that the board’s decision was never communicated in written form to himself or his family members who had submitted the petition.
He claimed that the decision was also tainted and vitiated as the second respondent, who is the AG, was an interested person with a long-standing animus against him.
Anwar said the AG deliberated at the meeting with the board on March 16 and this was confirmed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri in a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat. Anwar is serving a five-year jail term at the Sungai Buloh Prison after the Federal Court had, on Feb 10, upheld his conviction and sentence for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.
Anwar was represented by lawyer N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya. Wan Azizah, Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha were also present. - Bernama