Mahkamah Persekutuan mengekalkan hukuman penjara lima tahun yang diputuskan Mahkamah Rayuan terhadap Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yang didapati bersalah meliwat bekas pembantu peribadinya.
Sebelum itu, mahkamah menolak rayuan beliau.
Keputusan itu dibacakan oleh Ketua Hakim Negara Tun Arifin Zakaria yang mengetuai lima anggota panel hakim yang terdiri daripada Presiden Mahkamah Rayuan Tan Sri Md Raus Sharif dan Hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan, Hakim Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong, Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar dan Datuk Ramly Ali.
Sehubungan itu, Anwar hilang kelayakan sebagai Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh mengikut Perkara 48(1)(e) Perlembagaan Persekutuan yang menyebut bahawa seseorang anggota parlimen akan hilang kelayakan sekiranya dikenakan hukuman penjara lebih setahun atau didenda lebih RM2,000.
Anwar mohon beliau ditahan di penjara Sungai Buloh, tempat beliau dipenjarakan selama lima tahun sebelum dibebaskan pada penghujung 2004.- harakahdaily
The Federal Court has rejected Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against the conviction and sentence for sodomising his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
The court also upheld the Court of Appeal's decision to sentence Anwar to five years in jail.
It was a unanimous decision.
The five-member bench led by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria, ruled there is overwhelming evidence, scientific and corroborative, to prove the sodomy incident occur.
The other judges are Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif, and Federal Court judges Justice suriyadi Halim Omar, Justice Abdull Hamid Embong and Justice Ramly Ali.
Anwar's supporters and Pakatan Rakyat leaders appeared to be in shock and many were fighting back tears after the judgment was read out.
At the time of writing, the court is hearing submissions on sentencing.
PMO's quick response
Earlier, the Prime Minister's Department issued a statement within minutes of the verdict being delivered.
The statement said that the verdict was handed by an independent judiciary after considering all evidence in a balanced and objective manner.
"The police report against Anwar Ibrahim was brought by a private individual - Anwar's employee and personal assistant - not by the government. As the victim of a serious sexual assault, he had every right to have his case heard in court.
"In this case, exhaustive and comprehensive due process has been followed over many years. That process is now complete, and we call on all parties involved to respect the legal process and the judgment," read the statement.
During the sentencing process, the defence team submitted that the court must consider Anwar's service to the country in handing the sentence, to which prosecutor Shafee Abdullah countered: "The higher the man, the higher the crime".
Judges walk out
The prosecution then submitted that no less than a six-years sentence would suffice.
Following this, Anwar was allowed to make his final submission where he stated that while he accepted the decision, he maintained his innocence and claimed he was a victim of political conspiracy.
Anwar cited the Prime Minister's Department's issuance of a statement on the case before sentencing as proof.
Justice Arifin demanded that Anwar stop, but the latter refused and instead launched a tirade against the five judges, criticising them for "bowing to their political masters".
"You could have carved your names. But you chose to remain on the dark side," he said.
Anwar's request that he serve his sentence in the Sungai Buloh prison and not the Kajang prison has been granted, according to his laywer Gobind Singh.
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy conviction today became the lead story for major dailies and news outlets around the world, and entered the top 10 global trending list on Twitter.
Spreading further ripples globally, the conviction was the top story for news outlets like the UK’s BBC, global news network Al-Jazeera, news agency Bloomberg and Singapore’s Channel News Asia.
In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates’ The National featured the conviction as the second lead story as did UK’s top daily Guardian reported the much-awaited verdict.
Australia’s ABC featured it fourth on its main page, while both ABC and Sydney Morning Herald topped its World page with Anwar.
Germany’s Deutsche Welle led with the story in its World section while The Wall Street Journal featured the verdict as the second lead story in the Asia section.
The story was also featured in US-based CNN and The Washington Post. Washington DC is 11 hours behind Malaysia. - mk
cheers.
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