KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal to set aside charges over his involvement in the Bersih 3.0 rally three years ago has been thrown out by the Court of Appeal.
Anwar, 68, was jointly charged with PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and former Rembau PKR branch chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin under the Peaceful Assembly Act.
The former opposition leader was brought to the courtroom yesterday.
Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, who chaired a three-man panel yesterday, said they were of the unanimous view that the appeal could not be sustained.
Others on the panel were Justices Ahmadi Asnawi and Zamani A. Rahim.
Earlier, Anwar’s lead counsel Ramkarpal Singh submitted that his client was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by the Sessions Court.
DPP Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria said the issue had become academic.
On May 22, 2012, Anwar, Mohamed Azmin and Badrul Hisham were jointly charged with participating in the rally on April 28 that year.
They faced a second charge of conspiring with Tangam Raju, Rajesh Kumar Gejinder and Farhan Ibrahim by inciting them to remove barricades on Jalan Raja that day.
On July 2, the trio were slapped with a third charge of conspiring with Tangam, Rajesh, Farhan and five other supporters of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 3.0) to defy a magistrate’s court order dated April 26, 2012 not to hold the rally at Dataran Merdeka between April 28 and May 1.
On Jan 18, 2013, High Court judge Justice Kamardin Hashim dismissed Anwar’s attempt to set aside the charges.
He held that Sections 4(1)(c) and 4(2)(c) of the Peaceful Assembly Act were not in violation of Article 10(1)(b) of the Constitution, as contended by Anwar.
On Jan 6 last year, the Court of Appeal set aside magistrate Zaki Asyraf Zubir’s order prohibiting any assembly at Dataran Merdeka between April 28 and May 1, 2012.
The unanimous decision by a three-man panel led by Justice Linton Albert brought into question the validity of the charges against those alleged to be involved in the rally, as the magistrate’s order was an integral part of the charges.
On Jan 10 last year, Anwar and five others were given the discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
Sessions Court judge Ahmad Bache ruled that the charges against the accused had become defective following the ruling of the Court of Appeal.
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