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news without borders
Revision hearing on Anwar’s
case in February
KUALA LUMPUR: An
application by the prosecution for
a revision to quash the sessions
court’s decision to retain Datuk
Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy
trial in the sessions court will be
heard next year.
High Court judge Datuk
Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah
fixed Feb 5 and 6 when the case
was brought up here yesterday,
after allowing an application
by Anwar’s lawyer, Sulaiman
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Abdullah, for adjournment
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because he had another matter in
the Commercial High Court.
The judge also allowed
Sulaiman’s application for Anwar
to be excused during the revision
proceedings in the High Court.
DPP Datuk Yusof Zainal
Abiden said the prosecution will
submit a written submission a
week before the hearing date.
On Nov 11, the prosecution
had filed for a revision and an
appeal against sessions court
judge S.M Komathy’s decision.
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theSun
Zabidin will hear the
application for revision first.
On Nov 7, Komathy ruled
that the certificate to transfer the
case to the High Court signed by
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul
Gani Patail was invalid.
(Yusof had handed a
certificate to transfer signed by
Gani. However, the defence team
had objected to the transfer.)
Anwar is charged with
Former UM VC hits
out at ministry
FORMER Universiti Malaya vice-
chancellor Datuk Rafiah Salim
describes the way the Higher Educa-
tion Ministry treated her as sedikit
kurang ajar (somewhat disrespect-
ful).
She told China Press in an in-
terview published on its front page
yesterday: “They seem to regard this
(now former) UM vice-chancellor as
a criminal! Even employees who
make mistakes have their rights, and
not to be treated like this.”
Rafiah, the first woman to head
a public university in Malaysia, was
appointed VC in May 2006 and
her contract was extended for six
months from May this year.
She said that before her contract
was up, she contacted Higher Edu-
cation Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed
Khaled Nordin, the ministry’s sec-
retary-general and director-general
requesting them to notify her early
if they had no intention to extend
her contract.
Rafiah said the secretary-general,
Dr Zulkifli A. Hassan, phoned her to
say her contract was not extended
just before it expired. There was
not even an official notification, she
said.
Asked if she deemed the min-
istry’s treatment of her contract
unprofessional, she said it was not
only unprofessional but also “sedikit
kurang ajar”.
She disclosed that she only got a
letter informing her that her contract
was not extended, five days (Nov 12)
after she wrote a complaint letter to
Chief Secretary to the Government
EX-newscaster Sharma
and hubby win appeal
PUTRAJAYA: Former newscaster
Sharma Kumari Oam Parkash and
her husband have won their appeal
against the High Court decision
ordering them to pay RM1.8 million
in damages to businessman Abdul-
lah Sani Hashim.
In a 2-1 decision, the Court of
Appeal panel comprising Datuk
Gopal Sri Ram, Datuk James Foong
and Datuk Suriyadi Halim Omar
allowed the couple’s appeal with
costs yesterday.
Sharma Kumari and husband
Pardeep Kumar Om were sued by
Abdullah Sani who claimed she
had falsely and maliciously spoken
defamatory words about him to two
policemen at the Bukit Bandaraya
primary school area in Jalan Bang-
kung, Bangsar, on Jan 5, 1998.
In the statement of claim, Abdul-
lah Sani had said Sharma Kumari
had pointed at him and said “that
man and his brother Datuk Abdullah
Hishan Hashim tried to kidnap my
son”.
On March 2, 2000, High Court
Judge Datuk R.K. Nathan ordered
Sharma Kumari to pay RM1 million
and Pardeep Kumar RM800,000
in damages to Abdullah Sani, who
is the elder brother of Abdullah
Hishan.
Nathan had said the defendants
well and truly knew that there was
not an iota of truth in their allega-
tion of an attempted kidnapping
and that their acts were to his mind
| FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21 2008
sodomising his former aide,
23-year-old Mohamad Saiful
Bukhari Azlan, at Desa
Damansara Condominium
between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on
June 26, 2008.
If convicted, he faces
imprisonment of up to 20 years
under Section 377B of the Penal
Code.
He is now free on a personal
bond of RM20,000.
Press Digest
by Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
Tan Sri Mohamed Sidek Hassan.
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She said although the letter was
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signed on Oct 31, the VC’s office
only received the letter on Nov 11
and she was handed the letter the
next day.
If the letter was ready on Oct 31,
why couldn’t it be faxed to her the
same day? Why was it sent several
days after the contract expired and
only after she had complained, she
asked.
“What is amusing is that Khaled
Nordin said he was satisfied with
my contributions, but his assistant
insulted me in parliament.”
Rafiah, who had earlier demanded
an explanation and public apology
from Deputy Higher Education Min-
ister Datuk Idris Haron for question-
ing her performance as head of the
university in parliament, challenged
him to repeat his “insulting” remarks
about her outside parliament if he
did not want to apologise, so that
she could take the necessary action.
Idris has to bear responsibility for
what he had said as all that was
recorded in the Hansard, she said.
“I don’t want to see that, some
years later, when my grandchildren
go through the Hansard while doing
their research, they get the wrong
impression that their grandma, was
given the boot because of poor
performance.”
raw and unexpurgated versions of
conspiracy.
On appeal, Sri Ram said the al-
leged slanderous words pleaded by
Abdullah Sani in his statement of
claim did not contain any reference
to him.
“It follows that a vital ingredient
of the tort is absent. On this simple
ground, I would allow the husband’s
appeal,” he said.
He also said the finding of
conspiracy made by judge Nathan
against the appellants was unjust
and therefore could not stand.
“The judge, by his decision, gave
effect to an entirely new case which
the plaintiff had not made out in
his own pleadings. The plaintiff’s
pleaded case did not raise any
charge of conspiracy. The judge
therefore found for the plaintiff on
an unpleaded case. This is wrong
and manifestly unjust,” he said.
Foong said the High Court judg-
ment was not only biased against the
appellants but was also obsessed in
wanting to return a verdict without
due consideration to the law.
“This view is fortified by the
High Court’s ruling that both appel-
lants had conspired to defame the
respondent when this was not even
pleaded in the statement of claim.”
Suriyadi, who gave a dissenting
judgment, allowed Pardeep Kumar’s
appeal but affirmed the High Court
order of the liability and costs on
Sharma Kumari. – Bernama