Jan 11 hearing for Anwar’s appeal on suit against pardon

Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal against the High Court’s dismissal of his application to strike out the originating summons filed by a lawyer on the pardon granted to him for his conviction and imprisonment for sodomy will be heard at the Court of Appeal on Jan 11 next year.

His lawyer J Leela said the date was fixed when the matter came up for case management before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Noridah Adam through e-review today.

“Anwar’s appeal will be heard together with that of the Pardons Board,” she said in a WhatsApp message.

The plaintiff, Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz, was represented by Mohamad Farhan Kamarudin.

On Sept 21, High Court judge Akhtar Tahir dismissed the PKR president’s application and a similar application by the Pardons Board after finding, among others, that Khairul had the locus standi to initiate the suit as he was a member of the public and a qualified person as lawyer.

The Port Dickson MP filed the application on May 13, claiming that Khairul had no locus standi to file the originating summons. He also said the suit was frivolous, an embarrassment and abuse of the court process.

In his summons filed on Feb 26, Khairul, through legal firm Raja Riza & Associates, had named the Pardons Board and Anwar as the first and second defendants.

The lawyer claimed that the pardon granted to Anwar by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong contravened Articles 42 (4) and (5) of the Federal Constitution, in view of the fact that pardons granted by the Agong should be based on the advice of the Pardons Board which Khairul argued had not yet been formally established following the 14th general election on May 9, 2018, and the formation of the new government.

Khairul also claimed that following the election, several unconstitutional actions had been taken to ensure that Anwar received the pardon which released him from prison.

Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.