Sept 5, 2000
Appellate court upheld lawyer's 'contempt' verdict
K Kabilan
1.15pm, TUES: The Court of Appeal today upheld lawyer Zainur Zakaria's three-month jail sentence for contempt of court.
Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim read the judgment dismissing Zainur's appeal to overturn a High Court decision on Nov 30, 1998, which found Zainur to be in contempt for failing to apologise to the court for filing an application on behalf of his client to remove two prosecutor officers, Abdul Gani Patail and Azahar Mohamed.
Zainur, who is also a Keadilan vice-president, was one of the lawyers for former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim relating to tampering with police investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct on his part.
Zainur had filed the application on Anwar's behalf, seeking the removal of the prosecutors for allegedly being involved in a move to fabricate evidence of sexual offences against Anwar. The sacked deputy prime minister was later found guilty and sentenced to a six-year jail term.
After today's judgment, Zainur's lawyers immediately made an application for a stay pending an appeal to the Federal Court.
A new court of appeal panel, consisting of Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus, Justice Denis Ong and Justice Haidar Mohd Noor, unanimously granted the stay of execution.
Without a stay being granted, Zainur would have to start serving his jail sentence from today.
When contacted, Zainur said he will definitely file an appeal to the Federal Court to overturn his three-month jail sentence.
"Of course I will appeal," Zainur told malaysiakini over the telephone.
Zainur has 30 days to file his application to seek leave from the Federal Court, the country's highest court, to appeal against today's decision.
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