'Anwar's presence may create a media circus'
The prosecution in its submission objecting to Anwar Ibrahim's presence during the defence team's interviewing of the 15 witnesses it asked for in the Sodomy II trial said the opposition leader was capable of intimidating the witnesses.
The prosecution in its submission objecting to Anwar Ibrahim's presence during the defence team's interviewing of the 15 witnesses it asked for in the Sodomy II trial said the opposition leader was capable of intimidating the witnesses.
Further, the presence of the media might turn the matter into a circus, it cited as among the grounds for its objection to Anwar's presence during the interviews with the witnesses.
The submission was made by DPPs Mohd Hanafiah Zakaria and CK Wong in the chambers of Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.
“There is no necessity for the presence of media and reporters during this interview exercise. It is intimidating to the witnesses and the court is not there to protect the witnesses' interests.
“More importantly, it smacks of a lack of bona fide on the part of the defence,” the presecution submitted, adding that the interview exercise could be turned into “a media circus”.
Justice Zabidin dismissed the objection.
The witnesses are being interviewed on the sixth or seventh floors of the massive Jalan Duta court complex and the mass media do not have access to these floors. They are normally led through an underground path, which can only be accessed by court staff and the police.
'Anwar capable of asking witnesses to say what he wanted'
Other grounds the prosecution stated in its objection were that Anwar was capable of asking witnesses to say what he wanted them to say during the interview, and that past events in court indicated that Anwar's counsel were not able to control him.
They also submitted that former IGP Musa Hassan and former Malacca police chief Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof, who was Prime Minister Najib Razak's aide de camp when he was deputy prime minister, said yesterday they did not want to be interviewed in Anwar's presence.
The prosecution said the purpose of the interview was to determine whether the witnesses concerned could provide material evidence for the defence. It was not for the accused to be present and compare notes with what the witnesses would say in court later.
“The court had stated earlier in its ruling that the right of the defence to interview the witnesses is subjected to the witnesses' right to refuse to be interviewed,” the prosecution team of Hanafiah and Wong had further argued.
