KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 4): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has changed his lawyers to represent him in the civil suit filed against him by former aide Muhammed Yusoff Rawther over purported sexual assault.
This is the fourth time that Anwar has changed his lawyers or solicitors for this civil matter.
Separately, presiding High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain has been transferred to the Seremban High Court five days from now (Feb 9) following a transfer issued by Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Hashim Hamzah.
Hashim issued the transfer last Friday (Jan 30).
It remains to be seen who will now preside over the case although there is speculation that Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan, who is also in the Kuala Lumpur High Court civil division, could take over.
Yusoff’s counsel Rafique Rashid Ali confirmed the change of Anwar's legal team when approached by reporters on Wednesday.
The prime minister had changed his previous law firm from Messrs William Leong, led by the Selayang member of Parliament, to Messrs Christopher & Lee Ong.
Rafique said his firm received a letter from the new lawyers stating this, as well as a separate notice on Roz Mawar's transfer. The new solicitors also wrote in to seek an adjournment to the case for the hearing of its appeal at the Court of Appeal next month, he said.
“This is the fourth time that Anwar has changed his lawyers in the civil suit. I do not have a problem if Anwar wants to change lawyers frequently but this should not be at the expense of delaying the trial,” he said.
"My firm has written to the Court of Appeal on Jan 30, upon being informed of the change of solicitors, to object to the adjournment of next month's hearing date scheduled for March 4," he added.
Before William Leong, Anwar had engaged Messrs Zain, Megat & Murad, and prior to that he was represented by Messrs Jeffrey Lee.
In earlier hearings, Roz Mawar had dismissed Anwar’s application to refer several questions of law with regard to the position of a sitting prime minister to be sued as it did not meet the threshold for the referral to be referred to the Federal Court.
The matter is pending appeal, and a hearing date is scheduled at the Court of Appeal next month.
Roz Mawar had also said that the application had failed to meet the threshold needed to refer the questions to the country's top court.
Yusoff, who is turning 33 this year, filed the civil suit against Anwar in July 2021, alleging that he had been sexually assaulted at Anwar’s Segambut home on Oct 2, 2018.
He claimed that after filing a police report, he was accused of trying to ruin Anwar’s political career, and this accusation had affected his mental health.
Yusoff is seeking various damages and other relief. Anwar, 77, has denied the allegations and filed a countersuit.