A THREE-MAN bench led by shariah judge Dr Md Yusup Che Tehhas set June 5 to decide whether or not to reinstate the qazaf (false witness) suit filed by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against prominent lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Anwar’s shariah lawyer Fadhlina Sidek earlier today delivered an additional argument stressing on key numbers six and 10 on the intention of the legislator and the court’s field of jurisdiction in their appeal argument to have the suit reinstated.

She also told the judges that shariah high court judge who heard Anwar’s qazaf suit had made mistakes in rejecting the suit.

Fadhlina said that in his judgement, the judge had defined adultery according to imam Abu Hanifah who said qazaf fell under takzir because it was different act.

In October last year, shariah judge Mohamed Fouzi Mokhtar rejected the suit and said his court was not the place to determine the matter as sodomy did not come under the purview of laws relating to zina (adultery).

Fouzi acknowledged that there were some religious scholars who considered sodomy to be zina, but said this was not the case with local Islamic laws.

“As the jurisdiction of the court is limited, it is up to the state legislature or the federal legislature to extend it,” he was quoted as saying on Malaysiakini.

Anwar’s family filed the qazaf suit against Shafee in June 2015 following remarks the latter made in the wake of his successful prosecution of the PKR de facto leader. – April 28, 2017.