How will we remember our criminal justice system?

COMMENT It is certainly true for Anwar Ibrahim, poised to be convicted once again by Malaysia's criminal justice system on more ridiculous sodomy charges on Monday (Jan 9) - that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

If Anwar survives the near certain conviction and incarceration, he should really consider employing female only staff the next time around, for I am sick and tired of the two things Malaysia is mainly known for internationally: the ‘Truly Asia' tourism campaign and sodomy.

Though the Umno conspirators now have a chubby Anwar look-alike (I thought he looked more like Chua Jui Meng), any lurid and salacious plot will be possible.

So, don't be surprised if the next Anwar sex scandal revolves around a Jewish-US-World Bank-IMF-Communist-free and fair elections plot to undermine Islam and the Malays.

Back to Jan 9.

Once again, the main conspirators have all been involved, just like in the earlier corruption and sodomy cases. All rational, logical and established legal reasoning and practices were thrown out in favour of the prosecution's inherently incredible case.

Spiced and sexed-up script

Of course like all bad sequels, the script was spiced and sexed up.
One was the outrageous charge that Anwar, then 61, and with a well-documented serious back condition, had somehow repeatedly and forcefully sodomised (described as laju dan rakus) Saiful Bukhari, then 23, over a period of time.

Then, Anwar's "pristine" DNA evidence was magically retrieved after 56 hours in Saiful's rectum, and left in the open for another 48 hours (described as one of the longest documented "discoveries" in the world by the defence DNA expert).

After this, Saiful brought K-Y jelly to court in a last ditch attempt to "prove" that he was indeed forcefully sodomised (surely a first in the world, where an alleged male rape victim voluntarily brought lubricant to be sodomised?).

Then we had one of the female prosecutors falling in love and having an affair with Saiful (you can't make this up); and a prosecution witness, a doctor, who testified about a miracle -penetration indicative of sodomy.

This, despite the initial medical report stating: "No conclusive clinical findings suggestive of penetration to the anus/rectum and no significant defensive wound on the body of the patient." (Kuala Lumpur General Hospital report, June, 28, 2008).

Hallelujah! A miracle unseen since more than 2,000 years ago.

In the present case, the alleged victim is known to have had contact (and in fact testified in court and confirmed by Malaysia's prime minister) with senior police officers and high-level Umno politicians, including the prime minister and his lovely first lady, before he made his police report against Anwar.

And just like the old trials, the Sodomy II trial raised much suspicion and questions on political interference; falsification and suppression of evidence.
There were even charges of the blackmailing of prosecution witnesses as well as several of Anwar's close friends and associates; harassment of defence lawyers and also several civil servants who did not speak, report or act according to the recommended script.

Also, the court's rejection of crucial documents and refusal to allow witness testimonies that were favourable to the accused; a string of unfair or questionable rulings and decisions by the judges, both during the course of the trial and in the ultimate judgment of the cases, often put a premature end to the defence counsel's line of questioning.
Manipulating the criminal justice system

Now, with Anwar once more poised to lead the opposition coalition into the next general election (the bookies seem certain that it'll be around March/April 2012) - and with good prospects of taking over the reins of government - it is clear that the whole trial and near certain conviction is again politically motivated, a renewed attempt to sabotage the opposition coalition from ending more than half a century of Umno-BN rule.
Only in our criminal justice system can witnesses, including medical and forensic professionals, mislead and lie under oath, and the judges (most of them anyway) just accept them by coming up with unsound and baseless reasoning.

Such persecution and blatant injustice should not come as a surprise as the case should be seen in the broader context of systematic harassment and attacks on the opposition and its elected representatives, done by employing the AG's Chambers to prosecute them on oppressive, frivolous or even allegedly fabricated charges, via the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Jan 9 will once again demonstrate that in politically important cases, the criminal justice system can be manipulated, and the Judiciary, the AG's Chambers, the police and even government hospital doctors and chemists, will all play and dance along.

The only notable difference now is that both of Anwar's previous trial judge-tormentors Augustine Paul and Arifin Jaka are now dead.

I am not hinting at some kind of omnipotent cosmic-karma retribution that would befall the present judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, since everybody eventually dies, but merely pointing out that when the two retired judges died, nobody remembered them fondly, other than the despicable roles they played in Anwar's trials.

How will history and the rakyat remember judge Mohamad Zabidin  and the other dirty dozen or so characters who have messed up with the criminal justice system of the country this time around?

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ERIC PAULSEN is the co-founder and adviser of Lawyers for Liberty. He is also a researcher on refugee and statelessness issues and is still contemplating whether to return to legal practice when all indicators of the state of the legal system argue that he should not.