Three doctors to testify on Thursday
Hafiz YatimPublished: Jun 1, 2010 6:48 PM | Updated: Jun 2, 2010 5:13 PM
Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, which resumes on Thursday, will hear testimony from three doctors attached to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH), who had examined the complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
SODOMY II
The hearing has been adjourned to allow an Australian expert on clinical forensic medicine to hear the testimony of HKL doctors.
Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, which resumes on Thursday, will hear testimony from three doctors attached to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH), who had examined the complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
It is learnt that the trio to be called as prosecution witnesses are Dr Khairul Nizam Hassan, Dr Mohd Razali Ibrahim and Dr Siew Sheue Seng, who are said to have examined Saiful on June 28, 2008.
Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah allowed the postponement after Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh said that one of three defence experts will only arrive in Malaysia on Thursday morning.
"We have to await our expert witness to observe the evidence given by the three doctors from KLH. He will only be arriving from Australia between 7am and 8am at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport," Karpal said.
"Since our expert witness will only arrive then, we are applying for the case to be postponed."
Justice Zabidin fixed the hearing to continue at 9.30am on Thursday, saying: "I hope this will give ample time for the expert to arrive."
Outside the court, another defence lawyer Sankara Nair (right) said the expert is Dr David Wells, an associate professor in criminology at the University of Melbourne. He is the division head of clinical forensic medicine at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
"His role will be to assist us in asking questions during cross-examination. I do not know whether we can complete the testimony by Thursday. But we also have Friday," he said.
The other two specialists hired by Anwar are Dr Brian McDonald from Sydney, Australia, and forensic expert Dr C Damodaran, from Chennai, India.
Sankara also told reporters that the defence has yet to complete cross-examination of Saiful.
"We will do so once we manage to visit the right condominium unit," he said, with reference to the abortive site visit today.
‘Wrong keys provided'
Sankara said there was a mix-up but that he does not want to fault anyone for this - the defence team had wanted to visit Unit 11-5-2, not 11-5-1 which the court had already visited on Feb 4.
Unit 11-5-2 and Unit 11-5-1 are both owned by one Hasanuddin, who is said to be close to Anwar. Unit 11-5-2 is where Hasanuddin stays but he is currently out of town with his family.
"We had told the police and the prosecution that we wanted to visit 11-5-2 but they provided keys to unit 11-5-1 instead," said Sankara.
"Hence, we could not visit the (unit) we wanted. This is important to establish our alibi."
He would not disclose the alibi until the cross-examination of Saiful is completed.
The defence team and Anwar spent 45 minutes at Desa Damansara condominium, which Karpal described as a futile exercise.
Sankara said arrangements are being made to visit Unit 11-5-2 but could not point to a date.
It is learnt that the trio to be called as prosecution witnesses are Dr Khairul Nizam Hassan, Dr Mohd Razali Ibrahim and Dr Siew Sheue Seng, who are said to have examined Saiful on June 28, 2008.
Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah allowed the postponement after Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh said that one of three defence experts will only arrive in Malaysia on Thursday morning.
"We have to await our expert witness to observe the evidence given by the three doctors from KLH. He will only be arriving from Australia between 7am and 8am at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport," Karpal said.
"Since our expert witness will only arrive then, we are applying for the case to be postponed."
Justice Zabidin fixed the hearing to continue at 9.30am on Thursday, saying: "I hope this will give ample time for the expert to arrive."
Outside the court, another defence lawyer Sankara Nair (right) said the expert is Dr David Wells, an associate professor in criminology at the University of Melbourne. He is the division head of clinical forensic medicine at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine."His role will be to assist us in asking questions during cross-examination. I do not know whether we can complete the testimony by Thursday. But we also have Friday," he said.
The other two specialists hired by Anwar are Dr Brian McDonald from Sydney, Australia, and forensic expert Dr C Damodaran, from Chennai, India.
Sankara also told reporters that the defence has yet to complete cross-examination of Saiful.
"We will do so once we manage to visit the right condominium unit," he said, with reference to the abortive site visit today.
‘Wrong keys provided'
Sankara said there was a mix-up but that he does not want to fault anyone for this - the defence team had wanted to visit Unit 11-5-2, not 11-5-1 which the court had already visited on Feb 4.
Unit 11-5-2 and Unit 11-5-1 are both owned by one Hasanuddin, who is said to be close to Anwar. Unit 11-5-2 is where Hasanuddin stays but he is currently out of town with his family.
"We had told the police and the prosecution that we wanted to visit 11-5-2 but they provided keys to unit 11-5-1 instead," said Sankara.
"Hence, we could not visit the (unit) we wanted. This is important to establish our alibi."
He would not disclose the alibi until the cross-examination of Saiful is completed.
The defence team and Anwar spent 45 minutes at Desa Damansara condominium, which Karpal described as a futile exercise.
Sankara said arrangements are being made to visit Unit 11-5-2 but could not point to a date.
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