TV PAKATAN RAKYAT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 - Dr Munawar Anees declared today that he will pursue the overturning of his sodomy conviction to the bitter end. Munawar, who was a speechwriter for de facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when he was Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and then convicted of sodomy in 1998.

He told reporters at the PKR headquarters here that his legal team are now in the process of filing an application in the Court of Appeals to set aside its own ruling from Oct 30, 2007 dismissing his appeal for his conviction to be reviewed in the High Court. “I am advised to apply to the Court of Appeals to set right the injustice perpetrated against me for over a decade,” he said.

On Oct 30 this year, the Federal Court dismissed his appeal against his earlier sodomy conviction. In his first case after his controversial appointment as head of the Malaysian judiciary, Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Azmi, who presided over a three-judge panel, offered no clarification as to the grounds for the dismissal.

Munawar said, however, that he will not stop until he has been exonerated of what he claims to be a fabricated charge. “You can say it is an emotional statement, but my will to my children stipulates that if this issue is not resolved after I am gone, they will continue to fight for justice.” A decade ago, Munawar was convicted, based on a signed confession, of sodomy with Anwar Ibrahim. However, in a statutory declaration issued 10 years ago, Munawar claimed that he had been forced to confess following brutal torture while he was in detention.