KUALA LUMPUR, April 14: FT Syariah High Court judge Mohd Shukor Sabudin today rejected Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's qazaf (false accusation) application against his sodomy accuser Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
The judge said the qazaf application made by Anwar against his accuser was “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the Islamic justice system.”
The judge in accepting the preliminary objections raised by the respondents to the application said the chief prosecutor had quasi judicial powers in determining if there is merit to the case.
He said although the syariah chief public prosecutor’s powers were not absolute he had the powers when it concerns certain crimes, and one of them was qazaf.
He said he was allowing setting aside Anwar application as it would “disrupt” the smooth workings of the judiciary.
Anwar was represented by six lawyers headed by Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzzaman.
It is not immediately known if Anwar will appeal the decision of the high court.
The three respondents were FT Syariah public prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain, FT religious departments head Che Mat Che Ali and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (religious affairs) Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.
The respondents' were represented by a barrage of lawyers headed by Zainal Rijal Abu Bakar.
Last week Zainal gave three reasons as to why the qazaf application should be rejected.
The first concerned the affidavit which he claimed is flawed because it is based on a notice of application and not a summons.
The second was that the application excluded certain syariah requirements and therefore went against the syariah law.
The third questioned whether it is in the court's jurisdiction to issue an order to prosecute Saiful Bukhari, who accused Anwar of sodomising him.
“The question is not whether qazaf took place or not,” said Zainal. “It is whether the court can issue this prosecution order or not".
Anwar’s chief lawyer Kamar Ainiah had argued that the respondents' objections were not tenable as they wanted the case to be thrown out based on technicalities, instead of fundamental reasons.
“If they want us to refile the applications with a summons, then we will do that,” she stated. “As long as it means that justice is being upheld.”
She also opined that the non-inclusion of the syariah requirements mentioned by Zainal was insignificant and would not impact the application in any way.
Kamar Ainiah also warned that the fairness of Islamic law could come under threat if the qazaf application was denied.
“Saiful has publicly admitted to this act but he has not been punished for it,” she said.
This morning the court house was full and lawyers in full robes were perspiring as the air-conditioning was out and the court staff had to bring a several fans.
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