The Syariah Court of Appeal in Kuala Lumpur has accepted the withdrawal of Federal Territory Islamic Council member Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar from representing Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom and two others in Anwar Ibrahim's qazaf appeal.

In an unanimous decision, Justice Mahammad Ibrahim allowed Zainul's written application dated Oct 11, 2012 to withdraw.

However, Mahammad ruled that Zainul ( left ) and Anwar must bear the costs.

The other two judges are Aidi Moktar and Hussin Harun.

The former deputy prime minister had filed his qazaf application in Jan 2010, wanting the Syariah authorities to take action against his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar had earlier filed an application in 2011 against Zainul for him to be removed from representing Jamil Khir, former Jawi director-general Mat Che Ali and former chief prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussein.

The PKR de-facto leader cited that there is a conflict of interests as Zainul in representing the three is also a member of the council, was not professional in his dealings and not truthful in upholding justice.

Anwar's application was struck out at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court in 2011 following a preliminary objection made by Zainul Rijal.

This resulted in Anwar appealing the matter at the Court of Appeal and when the application was to be heard, Zainul Rijal withdrew from representing the three.

However, the Syariah Court of Appeal on Oct 13, 2011 did not accept Zainul Rijal's withdrawal as the senior lawyer had filled in a wrong form and not the Form 8 as required by the Syariah Court when a counsel wanted to withdraw from representing someone.

This led to Zainul Rijal submitting a new application with the right form on Oct 11, 2012. But a copy of the application was not given to Anwar's lawyers until the matter came-up last month before the Syariah Court of Appeal.

Today, Justice Mahammad ruled that the withdrawal was done in a proper manner, despite the form given to Anwar's lawyers close to three years later.

"Zainul Rijal would not be representing the three in Anwar's appeal," he said.

Despite this, Anwar's application to review the qazaf appeal at the Syariah Court of Appeal would be heard at an undecided date following the disposal of the matter with Zainul Rijal.

At the KL Syariah High Court, Jamil and the others’ preliminary objection was allowed in 2010, resulting in the on-going appeal.

At the end of the proceedings today, the lawyers met Anwar for about an hour to seek further instructions on the qazaf application.