KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 – PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants the High Court judge recused himself from hearing his application to be granted permission for judicial review to challenge the decision of the Board of Pardons refused his petition for sodomy conviction.
The lawyers who representing Anwar, Latheefa Koya told reporters that the defense’s of the application for the judge to withdraw on the grounds that there is a “danger of bias” if the Judge Datuk Mohamad Asmabi hear on Anwar’s application on the judicial review.
“We found Datuk Asmabi is senior federal counsel representing the government in the suit filed by Datuk Seri Anwar to the Prime Minister on his dismissal from the Cabinet in 1998. If he hears the application, there is a danger of bias,” he said after meeting with the judge in chambers. Latheefa said Asmabi set 1 Sept to hear an application for the judge to withdraw. Hearing of the application for the authorization previously scheduled today has been postponed to a date to be determined.
On 24 June, Anwar, his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her two children Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha filed an application for leave to quash the decision of the board on March 16 and offered appropriate advice to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to be pardoned and freed Anwar. They also sought an order of mandamus to allow the agency to resume its meetings and consider all matters relating to the petition for a royal pardon.
In his affidavit to support his application, Anwar, 67, claimed that the board’s decision violated the rules of justice and human rights as such, is not valid. Anwar is now serving a prison sentence of five years in the Sungai Buloh prison after the Federal Court on Feb 10 upheld the conviction and sentence against him for the offense of sodomizing his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.
