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Tired-looking Anwar back in court after arsenic
allegations
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (AFP) - With a nurse on standby, Malaysia's
former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim appeared in court Monday for the first
time in over two weeks after being hospitalized following alleged attempts
to poison him with arsenic.
Anwar, on trial for sodomy, looked tired as he was ushered into the
courtroom by five prison guards. He managed to hug his family members
before entering the dock.
Judge Arifin Jaka was told Anwar was fit to stand trial, but he
adjourned proceedings after midday when Anwar showed signs of fatigue.
"I have a headache and I feel very weak," Anwar told the judge when
asked how he was feeling.
Arifin earlier summoned National University Hospital director Khalid
Abdul Kadir to court to seek clarification on Anwar's health after the
hospital placed a nurse on standby in the courtroom.
Khalid told the court that it was normal procedure for a nurse to
accompany Anwar, who has other health problems.
"In our opinion, he is fit to attend the court case but he has some
medical problems that we need to attend to but (which) will not bar him
from attending the court case," Khalid said, adding the nurse must take
Anwar's blood pressure every four hours.
Arifin then ruled that the nurse need not be present in the courtroom
as it might imply Anwar was still ill, and ordered her to wait outside.
Anwar's sodomy trial was halted when he was admitted to hospital on
September 10, with his lawyers alleging that abnormally high levels of
arsenic found in his urine indicated there had been a plot to murder him.
The one-time heir apparent to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was
sacked and arrested in September last year and is already serving a
six-year jail sentence after being found guilty in April of corruption. He
faces up to 20 years if convicted of sodomy.
During Monday's hearing defence lawyers applied to have Arifin
disqualified from the trial, charging that he may be biased because he had
business links in the past to the son of Prime Minister Mahathir.
Before being appointed as a judge in the early 1990s, Arifin was one of
four directors of technlogy firm Dataprep Holdings Bhd. along with Mirzan
Mahathir, counsel Karpal Singh said.
"There must be a disclosure before the commencement of the trial
because justice must not only be done but be seen to be done," he said.
"There is real danger and reasonable apprehension and suspicion that
your lordship is biased, although we are not alleging that your lordship
is biased," Karpal added.
"What is important is that the stream of justice is seen to be not
polluted," he said.
"There must not be any suspicion in the minds of the public that
justice has been contaminated in any way."
But Attorney General Mohtar Abdullah argued that Arifin's past business
links were not relevant to the trial.
"This is yet another attempt to dislodge your lordship from hearing
this case," Moktar said. "This is done not in the true spirit as the
officer of this court but with some degree of malice."
Arifin said the document which Karpal had produced to show his business
links with Mirzan was "not up to date" as it was part of Dataprep's
prospectus way back in 1990 before it was listed.
A copy of the document showed Arifin was Dataprep's general managing
director, and held 87,941 shares. Mirzan was also a director as well as a
director of the private firm which owned a majority share in Dataprep.
Mohtar also argued that Arifin had "come into contact with all shades
of people" as an advocate and solicitor before being made a judge.
Since both Mirzan and Dataprep were not parties to the trial, "there
cannot be any real likelihood of bias" by Arifin, he said, urging the
judge to throw out the defence application.
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