Federal Court and Court of Appeal should be cognizant of the maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” and fix immediate early dates for Anwar’s  corruption appeal judgment and sodomy appeal hearing respectively

(Penang,  Friday): The Federal Court and Court of Appeal should be cognizant of the maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied”and fix immediate early dates for Anwar Ibrahim’s  corruption appeal judgment and sodomy appeal hearing respectively. 

DAP fully supports the letter by Anwar to the acting Court of Appeal president Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim (also the Chief Judge of Malaya) dated June 4, 2002 hoping that his appeal against his sodomy conviction will be heard by the Court of Appeal as soon as possible. 

It is almost two years since the judgment of Justice Arifin Jaka on August 8, 2000 after a 118-day trial sentencing Anwar to nine years’ jail, to be served after the end of his six-year jail sentence for corrupt practices. 

On April 14, 1999, Justice S. Augustine Paul had  found Anwar guilty on four counts of corrupt practices and sentenced him to six years in jail. 

The Court of Appeal  started hearing Anwar’s appeal against conviction and sentence in connection with the corruption charges on 28^th February 2000, handing down its  judgement dismissing Anwar’s appeals on April 29, 2000. 

If the Court of Appeal, which constituted the then  Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Lamin Yunus, Datuk Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Dato Mokhtar Sidin, could hear Anwar’s appeal on the corruption charges after 10 months of the Augustine Paul judgement, and handed  down its  judgement dismissing Anwar’s appeals two months later, why is the Court of Appeal taking almost two years just to fix a date for its hearing on Anwar’s appeal against sodomy charges? 

This is not an improvement in the administration of justice, but going backwards, and not calculated to restore national and international confidence in the system of justice in the country. 

It is not just the Court of Appeal, but the Federal Court, which must be both cognizant of the legal maxim that “Justice delayed is justice denied”, as there has also been an inordinate delay in the handing down of the Federal Court judgment on Anwar’s appeals on the corruption charges. 

The Federal Court should be mindful that the Court of Appeal judgment dismissing Anwar’s appeal against the corruption charges is more than two years ago as it was delivered on 29^th  April 2000,  and it would be a grave injustice if the Federal Court further delays handing down its judgment as Anwar has already served more than three years of the six-year Paul Augustice sentences. 

With the one-third remission for the jail sentences for prisoners, a six-year jail sentence would be served in four years. This means that Anwar would have served his corruption sentences in nine months’ time, i.e.  April 13, 2003.  In fact, if Anwar’s more than 18 months’ jail custody before conviction and sentence  had been taken into account, as is the usual case, in the 77-day corruption trial, Anwar would have completed his six-year jail sentences for corruption on 28^th September 2001 – as he was first charged on 29^th September 1998. 

In the circumstances, the Federal Court should be seized with a greater sense of urgency to hand down its judgment on Anwar’s appeal on the corruption charges without any more delay  as Anwar has some nine months to complete his sentences if his 18-month pre-trial jail custody was correctly not taken into account, or should have already completed his six-year jail sentences in September last year if that period had been taken into account,  even if the conviction and sentences are not altered. 

(28/6/2002)