Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s allegation that he was sodomised by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was uncorroborated and a conviction based solely on the accuser’s testimony would have been unsafe, the Kuala Lumpur High Court concluded in its written judgment of the opposition leader’s Sodomy II trial that was released today.
High Court judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said in his 80-page written judgment that it could not be 100 per cent certain about the integrity of DNA samples examined by government chemist Dr Seah Lay Hong.
He ruled that it is not safe to rely on the results of Dr Seah’s examination of the DNA evidence.
“There was no evidence to corroborate the evidence of Saiful on factum of penetration,” he said.
“The court is always reluctant to convict an accused person based solely on the uncorroborated evidence of the complainant. Therefore the accused is acquitted and discharged of the charge,” he ruled.
On January 9, the High Court acquitted Anwar of a charge of sodomising his former male aide Mohd Saiful
Speaking in court then, the judge had ruled that the prosecution had not done enough to prove Anwar had committed sodomy against Saiful.
Anwar, 64, had been similarly indicted of sodomy over a decade ago and was found guilty. He spent six years in jail before being exonerated.
The High Court’s decision this time had given a boost to Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact’s plans to take over Putrajaya.
The prosecution says it plans to appeal the decision and has 10 days from today to do so.
In the written judgment released today, the judge addressed the question of the integrity of the DNA samples.
The judge pointed out that the DNA samples collected had been placed in individual plastic receptacles, labelled and sealed at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, but were subsequently open by the police investigating officer DSP Jude Pereira.
“According to him (Pereira), it was done for the purpose of individually re-labelling the receptacles. In my view, this was not necessary since the receptacles were already packed and labelled by the experts who collected them,” he said.
[Source: The MI]
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