Court throws out Munawar's appeal

The Federal Court today threw out the appeal by Anwar Ibrahim’s former speech-writer Munawar A Anees for his sodomy charge to be remitted to the Kuala Lumpur High Court so that he can argue his case.

The three-member panel led by Chief Justice Zaki Azmi, who sat with Federal Court judges Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, delivered an oral decision today. It was unanimous.

“We have discussed among ourselves and we have decided that the application should be dismissed. We will give our grounds later,’ said Zaki, in his first judgment since being appointed CJ yesterday.

The decision of the highest court also means that Munawar, 60, has lost his final bid to have his 1998 sodomy conviction and sentence overturned.

Met outside the court, Munawar - who currently works as a project management consultant with the US-based John Templeton Foundation - said he was “terribly disappointed” with the judgment.

“There is a resolve on my part not be to intimidated by the tactics which have been deployed (against me), I will never be discouraged,” an irate Munawar told Malaysiakini.

“If this justice that is due to me is not dispensed in my life, my children and grandchildren will pursue it.

“They have done everything and continue to do everything to deny me justice under this and that technicality. I still have to have my day in justice and I will continue to fight for that.”

Munawar, who wore a grey suit, said he has “no idea” whether the decision was politically-motivated but said what is most important to him is justice for himself and his family.

On his next step, he said he would see what else he could do within the laws to pursue his case.

“I hope there will be a chance for me to say in the court that I am innocent - in the same kangaroo court that extracted the confession from me under torture from the police.

“It’s the moral responsibility of the court that if they could hear the police thugs, they should also hear me.”

‘Confession under duress’

Munawar, a Pakistani-American writer, is a confidante of Anwar. A biologist by training and an internationally well-respected Islamic intellectual, he was detained under the Internal Security Act on Sept 14, 1998.

The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court had on Sept 19, 1998, sentenced Munawar to six months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to allowing Anwar to sodomise him at the latter’s house in Jalan Setia Murni, Bukit Damansara, in March 1993.

He was charged alongside Anwar’s adopted brother, Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja, who
also pleaded guilty to same charge and was sentenced to six months’ jail.

However, in a statutory declaration issued 10 years ago, Munawar claimed that he had been forced to confess following brutal mental and physical torture by the Special Branch while he was in detention.

Munawar has served his sentence but had filed the appeal in a bid to clear his name.

Four years ago, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had dismissed his case after Munawar, who is now living in United States, was unable to attend the hearing. The decision was upheld by the appellate court.

In a previous hearing, Munawar’s counsel Manjeet Singh Dhillon had asked the Federal Court to quash the Court of Appeal’s decision on the High Court’s dismissal of Munawar’s appeal.

Manjeet had submitted that High Court judge Ahmad Maarop had struck out the appeal without hearing the merits of the case and that the Court of Appeal had dismissed the subsequent appeal against the High Court decision without giving any grounds.

Unlike Munawar, Sukma successfully cleared his name in 2006 when the Sessions Court freed him after the charge was withdrawn.

This followed an order by the Court of Appeal for a retrial after it found Sukma’s guilty plea as “manifestly unsafe” because of suppression of evidence which could have proven his innocence.

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