THE Court of Appeal has fixed July 28 to hear Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal against a high court’s dismissal of his bid to strike out a suit by a lawyer over the legality of his royal pardon for his sodomy conviction.

Anwar’s lawyer J. Leela, when contacted, confirmed that the hearing date has been rescheduled to July.

The appeal came up for case management today before deputy registrar, Radzilawatee Abdul Rahman which was conducted via e-review.

The hearing of the appeal was initially fixed for January 11 but it was postponed.

Anwar’s appeal will be heard together with the Pardons Board’s appeal.

On September 21, last year, the high court dismissed both Anwar and the Pardons Board’s applications to strike out the suit, after finding that Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz had locus standi to initiate the legal suit as he is a member of the public and a qualified person as a lawyer.

The Port Dickson MP applied to strike out the suit on grounds, among others, Khairul had no locus standi to file the originating summons and that it was frivolous, an embarrassment and abuse of the court process.

Khairul, who filed the suit on February 26, last year, naming the Pardons Board and Anwar as respondents, claimed that several unconstitutional actions had been taken to ensure Anwar received a pardon, which saw his release from prison following the 14th general election.

He claimed the pardon granted to Anwar by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was in contravention of Articles 42(4) and (5) of the federal constitution, in view of the fact that pardons granted by the Agong should be based on the advice of the Pardons Board, which Khairul argued had not yet been formally formed following the May 9, 2018 polls and the formation of the new government.

Anwar had been sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Federal Court on February 10, 2015. – Bernama, January 20, 2021.