Anwar to face Shafee next week in suit against Anifah, says lawyer

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman has been given permission to amend his defence in the suit against him by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 11, 2015.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expected to be back in court next week and face off with Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in a defamation suit filed by the opposition leader against Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

Shafee, who is representing Anifah, is scheduled to cross-examine Anwar after a High Court order which had ruled that Anifah could amend his defence.

Lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli said the court fixed February 17 for Anwar to take the stand but arrangements were made since he was in Sungai Buloh prison.

"This involves logistics and we are making arrangements so that he could be present in court to give evidence," he told The Malaysian Insider.

Shafee, who was given a temporary licence as deputy public prosecutor, led the prosecution team to secure the conviction.

The Federal Court yesterday dismissed Anwar's appeal against the conviction and a five-year jail sentence for sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, at a condominium in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur in June 2008.

Anwar filed the suit against Anifah after an allegation that the opposition leader offered him cash to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in order to bring down the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2008.

On November 27, Anifah took the stand and said businessman Datuk Ishak Ismail, a close associate of Anwar, offered him RM100 million to bring 10 members of parliament from Sabah to join PR and topple the BN federal government.

The foreign minister said he felt cheap when the offer was made by Ishak, a former KFC deputy executive chairman, at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur hotel.

But he did not include this piece of evidence when he filed his defence in 2009 in which he had only stated that he was offered the post of deputy prime minister.

Anifah who filed his application to amend his defence last December also said the 2004 majority Federal Court judgment which acquitted Anwar of sodomising his wife's driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, had remarked on the former deputy prime minister's sexual inclination.

The judgment said: “We find evidence to confirm that the appellants (Anwar and Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja) were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa (in Kuala Lumpur) did happen, sometimes..."

Sukma Darmawan is Anwar’s adopted brother who was jointly charged with him for sodomy.

Anwar last year failed in his attempt to expunge the case before a five-man Federal Court bench, and panel chairman Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin said there was sufficient evidence on record to justify the comment.

Anifah also brought to attention that Anwar was convicted of corruption in 1999.

However, judicial commissioner Siti Khadijah S. Hassan Badjenid dismissed the foreign affairs minister's application to include the observation that Anwar had homosexual tendencies and conviction for corruption.

Court documents sighted by The Malaysian Insider revealed that Anifah had also included in the statement of defence that Anwar was of a bad character and tarnished reputation even before filing the suit against him in May 2009.

He relied on allegations of Anwar being corrupt and having homosexual tendencies to mitigate his losses if the court found the Sabah politician liable for defamation.

Anwar filed an RM100 million suit against Anifah whom he said uttered defamatory words about him during a news conference in Washington with former United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Anifah then told reporters that Anwar offered him the post of deputy prime minister if he brought MPs from the state to topple the BN government which had won 140 seats in the 2008 general election.

In his statement of claim, Anwar alleged that Anifah's claims were baseless, unfounded and grossly negligent and had been widely reported in local and foreign media.

- TMI