Anwar fails to get conviction overturned

KUALA LUMPUR: A High Court judge yesterday dismissed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s application to set aside his 2015 sodomy conviction, describing it as a “backdoor or veiled attempt to derail the previous judgment”.

The PKR de facto leader had based his application on the grounds that the evidence used against him in court was fraudulently obtained.

“The application fails to meet the legal threshold to call for a fresh trial.

“After three years since the case was heard in court, I cannot help but feel like this is a backdoor or a veiled attempt to derail the previous judgement,” Justice Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamed said in her judgment.

“To bring up the case of fraud against the evidence which was presented in court during the time, it must be specific. The government or public officer in question must be named,” she said.

She also ordered Anwar to pay RM5,000 in costs.

In 2008, Anwar was charged with sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari.

He was acquitted after a long trial in 2012, but the government appealed and he was convicted and sentenced to a five-year jail term in February 2015.

He is due to be released in June this year but will not be allowed to contest for office for five years unless his conviction is overturned or if he receives a royal pardon.

His application for a royal pardon was rejected in 2015. – by Vathani Panirchellvum