Anwar wants judge to recuse herself because of real danger of bias

PKR advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is seeking to have a High Court judge recuse herself from hearing his application for leave for a judicial review to challenge the Pardons Board's dismissal of his petition over his sodomy conviction.

His lawyer, Latheefa Koya, told reporters that the defence made the recusal application on grounds of "real danger of bias" if Judge Datuk Asmabi Mohamad heard Anwar's judicial review application.

"We have discovered that Datuk Asmabi was the senior federal counsel representing the government in a suit filed by Datuk Seri Anwar against the Prime Minister over his sacking from the Cabinet in 1998. If she hears the leave application, there is real danger of bias," she said after meeting the judge in chambers.

Latheefa said Asmabi fixed Sept 1 to hear the recusal application. The hearing of the leave application, originally scheduled for today, has been postponed to a date to be set later.

On June 24, Anwar, his wife Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and daughters Nurul Izzah and Nurul Nuha filed the leave application to quash the decision of the board on March 16 and to compel it to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to pardon and release him.

They also sought a mandamus order to compel the board to reconvene a meeting and consider all materials relating to the petition for a royal pardon.

Anwar, 67, in his supporting affidavit, claimed that the decision made by the board was in breach of the rules of natural justice and therefore void.

He is serving a five-year jail term at the Sungai Buloh Prison after the Federal Court on Feb 10 upheld his conviction and sentence for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.