PUTRAJAYA: The prosecution was forced to delay its submissions to today due to new developments raised by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his sodomy appeal.
Lead prosecutor Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was granted the adjournment by a five-man Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria around midday yesterday.
Shafee, who was initially scheduled to begin yesterday afternoon, sought the adjournment so that prosecution will have more time to prepare for its submissions.
Anwar's legal team wrapped up its submissions yesterday.
Shafee, met after proceedings, said the prosecution needed to prepare replies to several points raised by Anwar during the appeal hearing which began last Tuesday.
He said the prosecution's submissions only anticipated 85 percent of the points contained in a copy of Anwar's written submissions served on them recently.
“We need to prepare for the other 15 per cent,” Shafee said.
Last Tuesday, Anwar's lead counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram informed the bench that they had added 46 grounds for the appeal.
However, only 35 grounds were listed in their 10-page petition of appeal filed at the Federal Court Registry on April 24.
Shafee said they would help the bench by providing it a skeletal submissions to help the court navigate his submissions.
He said the bench had also fixed for proceedings to run until Monday for the prosecution to have sufficient time to argue its case.
“I will start by laying down the facts (of the case),” he said, adding that at the moment only he would be submitting for the three-man prosecution team.
On a statement by Anwar that he was confident of winning the appeal, Shafee said one must be confident of one's own case.
“Otherwise there is no point to appeal. There are always two sides to a case,” he said, adding that the prosecution was also cross-appealing for Anwar's five-year jail term to be increased.
Anwar's counsel Ramkarpal Singh said they would hear the prosecution's submissions first before deciding whether they would make reply submissions on Monday.
Ramkarpal, in his closing submissions yesterday, had argued that there was no conclusive proof of penetration on complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan's anus.
He said Pusrawi Hospital medical officer Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid, who was the first person to examine Saiful on June 28, 2008, had testified for Anwar during the sodomy trial that he found no injury on Saiful's anus.
“How do you find semen in the rectum where there is no evidence of penetration?” he said, in reference to the semen the prosecution said were collected from the victim.
Shafee is expected to begin submitting this morning before the same bench, which is also comprises Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif, Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar and Tan Sri Ahmad Maarop.
Anwar was convicted and sentenced to five years jail on March 7 by the Court of Appeal for sodomising Saiful, 29, at a condominium at Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, between 3.10pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
The 67-year-old Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader was previously acquitted by the High Court on Jan 9, 2012.