KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom and two others today filed preliminary objections in applying to strike out Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “qazaf” application against his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
Jamil Khir, Federal Territory (FT) Syariah chief prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain and FT Religious Department director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali, as the applicants, filed the preliminary objections at the Syariah High Court registry here this afternoon through the law firm of Zainul Rijal Talha & Amir.
Their lawyers, Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, Roslizam Rahim and Mohd Firdaus Mohd Arifin were present at the court to file the papers.
Zainul Rijal told journalists that the court had fixed Feb 17 for mention of the preliminary objections.
He said copies of the documents would be made available to Anwar’s syarie lawyer, Kamar Aniah Kamaruzaman, tomorrow.
On Jan 7, Anwar had filed the application to the court to order Shamsuddin, as the chief syarie prosecutor in the Federal Territory, to charge his former aide for making false accusations about committing intercourse with him but not producing four witnesses to attest such intercourse took place.
Besides wanting to strike out Anwar’s application, the trio also want one of Anwar’s lawyers in the case, Zulkifli Noordin, to be dropped from acting as his counsel on the grounds that he might be called as a witness in the “qazaf” case.
They also held the view that the Syariah High Court did not have powers to adjudicate the “qazaf” application as it was related to a criminal offence and that there had also been inconsistencies in the procedures in initiating the “qazaf” proceedings. — Bernama
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