KUALA LUMPUR (June 6): The Court of Appeal has set June 10 to hear Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's application to temporarily pause former aide Muhammed Yusoff Rawther's sexual assault civil suit against him.
Anwar's lawyer Datuk Seri Rajasegaran Krishnan confirmed the date with The Edge following a case management held on Friday (June 6).
The court has set an interim (temporary) stay hearing on June 10. The full hearing for the stay application is on July 21.
“The ad [interim] hearing is on June 10, as the trial is on June 16, and that is too short a time for parties to file their respective affidavits," Rajasegaran said.
This application follows Wednesday's High Court decision which dismissed Anwar's constitutional referral on whether a sitting prime minister has personal immunity from ongoing civil lawsuits.
High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain ruled that the eight constitutional questions raised in the application were "speculative" and contained no "genuine constitutional controversies" for it to be referred to the Federal Court.
In her decision, the judge stressed that all were equal before the law and that the executive body was not immune from personal, civil liability.
Roz Mawar also denied an application to stay the sexual assault trial which is scheduled to start on June 16.
Anwar has denied any wrongdoing and has filed a counterclaim to the suit.
Anwar's lawyers have stressed that the constitutional questions were novel and needed to be addressed by the country's highest court before the trial commences. They have also stressed that this was a 'qualified privileged' linked to the office of the prime minister, not a blanket personal immunity accorded to an individual.
Echoing this, in a statement following Wednesday's decision, Anwar said that his application was intended to protect the integrity of high public office, and not to seek personal immunity or evade legal scrutiny.
The 77-year-old PKR chief is also appealing the entirety of Wednesday's High Court decision. Case management for the appeal proper has been set for Sept 2.
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