Anwar gets CCTV footage, Saiful's HKL report

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today won a key ruling in his sodomy trial, forcing the prosecution to hand over evidence including video footage and medical reports.

Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled that Anwar's lawyers to be given access to some of the prosecution's evidence in the sodomy case.

In his decision this afternoon, Mohamad Zabidin ordered the prosecution to allow Anwar's lawyers to inspect CCTV recordings of the alleged crime scene if the given copy is unclear.

The CCTV recordings are from the guardhouse and lifts to Block 11 of the Desa Damansara condominium and other locations within the complex.

He also ordered that the examination notes of Hospital Kuala Lumpur doctors on the alleged victim, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, be handed to the defence team.

However, the court refused to grant the defence access to original DNA specimens because the samples have packeted and sealed.

Justice Mohamad Zabidin said that as the "identity and chain of evidence" will be compromised otherwise.

"Therefore, the application to be supplied with, or to inspect the samples is denied at this stage. However, the defence can apply to inspect the sample once it is produced in court as an exhibit," said Mohamad Zabidin.

Nevertheless, the judge allowed defence to inspect the 'slides' which were prepared from the original DNA specimen, under the supervision of the investigating officer and the chemist, who had analysed the samples.

The High Court judge also wants the prosecution to provide the defence team with the witness statements of seven individuals including Mohd Saiful and Dr Osman Abdul Hamid (right), the Pusrawi Hospital doctor who had conducted the first medical examination on the complainant.

"The stand of the prosecution is that the defence has no right to the witness statements... although I agree that past cases stated the accused person has no right to the statement recorded under Section 122 (of the Criminal Procedure Code), we cannot forget that this was before Section 51(A) was added to the CPC.

"Therefore as stipulated under Section 51(A) the defence has the right to be supplied with, not just documents that would be used in the trial but also facts that are favourable to the defence," he ruled.

Seven days to comply to ruling

Moreover, the prosecution was ordered to provide worksheets or case notes of the chemist, who had conducted the DNA testing and the analysis, and all other unused documents and materials pertianing to the case.

On Mohd Saiful's video testimony to the police done on June 30, 2008, he said the defence had expressed that if it was given the witness statement, they did not need the video recording.

The prosecution has seven days to comply to the ruling. However, Yusof said that they were going to file an application for stay on the ruling by tomorrow or next week.

If the stay is not granted the prosecution can still opt for an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

July 24 has been fixed for mention of Anwar's application to strike out the charge and fix new trial dates.

Anwar, who was sacked as deputy prime minister and jailed a decade ago on separate sodomy and corruption charges, welcomed the decision but said there was still no certainty he would get a fair trial.

"I would say that we are glad with this particular judgment but we have to go through the processes because of past experience. We cannot be too presumptive," he said.

He also said he was concerned that the court had denied the defence team access to DNA specimens, and criticised the prosecution's plans to file an appeal on the decision to release evidence, saying it was a delaying tactic.

The 61-year-old opposition leader faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment if he is convicted of the charges, which he says are a conspiracy to frustrate his political ambitions.

The earlier sex conviction was overturned in 2004, allowing him to go free after six years in jail.

"I would like to reiterate, the key issue here is that after looking at the medical examination and since the four doctors records are clearly in our favour," said Anwar.

"So it is too early at this stage, to accept that the judicial decision would be the trend (in future)... though the judge had shown some courage in terms of making this sort of an order," he said.

Earlier, the High Court was adjourned at 10am for the judge to deliberate after counsel, Edmund Bon and Amer Hamzah Arshad made their rebuttals to lead prosecutor Yusof Zainal Abiden's argument that all admissible documents had been supplied to the defence.

The defence applied to compel the prosecution to submit a complete set of original documents, witness statements, CCTV recordings and other exhibits relating to the charge.

Defence's thrust

Bon responded saying that the court is in its jurisdiction to ensure that the rights of the accused person is fully protected, especially as the accused is saying that the prosecution is withholding relevant information.

The counsel said that it was with Anwar's right to make the complaint when there was a dispute whether the documents being withheld were protected by public interest.

Bon, however stated that the prosecution had not invoked "public interest immunity" sooner in the case and all relevant documents should be supplied to the defence.

"The consequences are quite far reaching... that the court has the power to decide when the accused files a complaint over this," he said.

"Let us not get confuse the question of admissibility and substantive evidence with pre-trial discovery," he said.

"At this time, we are entirely handicapped as we cannot look at the scientific evidence for the sodomy trial," he said.

The thrust of Anwar's defence is that they had served an alibi notice to the prosecution, the charge was a political conspiracy, the complainant (Mohd Saiful) cannot be trusted, there was tampering of crucial evidence and that there is conclusive medical evidence that there was no penetration.

Before the trial commenced this morning, counsel R Sivarasa, who is leading the defence, after senior lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah had discharged himself yesterday, asked the judge to order investigating officer Jude Pereira out of the court.

Pereira, who was also observing the hearing yesterday, is a key prosecution witness, said Sivarasa.

The judge agreed and ordered Periera to leave.

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