KUALA LUMPUR: Three items taken from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's cell in 2008 can now be tendered as evidence, after the High Court ruled that the Opposition Leader's arrest then was legal.
In reversing its decision made during the trial-within-a-trial, Justice Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled yesterday that the items – a white toothbrush, a towel and a mineral water bottle – could be tendered as evidence in Anwar's ongoing sodomy trial.
"In the light of the evidence of the investigating officer (DSP Jude Blacious Pereira) and the arresting officer (Supt Ahmad Taufik Abdullah), the arrest was indeed lawful.
"Detention of the accused can no longer be said to be done illegally. The court allows these items to be tendered as evidence," he ruled.
However, he dismissed another application made by the prosecution for the court to compel Anwar to submit his DNA for profiling, as "there is no legal provision to do so".
The applications were filed by the prosecution on March 11, that is, for the court to review its trial-within-a-trial decision for the items and for the court to compel Anwar to provide his DNA sample for profiling.
On March 8, the court ruled that the three items taken from the lock-up where Anwar was kept overnight could not be tendered as evidence as they had been obtained via unfair means.
Following the decision, Soli citor- General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden asked the court to allow him to call chemist Nor Aidora Saedon from the Chemistry Department and head of police forensic lab in Cheras Supt Hamidon Adnan to tender their evidence in court today.
Nor Aidora had previously testified that the DNA profile taken from these items matched that of an unknown person known as Male Y, whose semen was found inside complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan's anus.
Supt Hamidon was the one who collected the items from Anwar's lock-up.
Anwar, 63, is charged with sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in a Bukit Damansara condominium here on June 26, 2008.
Speaking to reporters later, Anwar said he was surprised, but the decision "did not come as totally unexpected".
The hearing continues today.
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