Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has referred an upcoming sexual assault suit against him to the Federal Court in an unprecedented move to seek immunity, court filings show.
His newly appointed lawyer Megat Abdul Munir Megat Abdullah Rafaie has also applied for a postponement of the trial, which is due to start on June 16 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
The suit filed by Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, who was a research assistant at Anwar’s bungalow office in Petaling Jaya, alleges that the PKR leader sexually assaulted him in October 2018, just days before he won the Port Dickson by-election.
Yusoff is currently on remand at the Sungai Buloh Prison after he was slapped with drug trafficking and firearms charges following a controversial police raid on his car in September last year.
The 33-year-old has strongly denied the allegations and stated in court that he was a victim of those in power, naming Anwar and his former political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador as those who harboured a grudge against him.
In a new affidavit filed with the Kuala Lumpur High Court last week and sighted by MalaysiaNow, Anwar’s lawyer Megat Munir applied for a stay of proceedings until the Federal Court has clarified a set of questions.
Citing Articles 39, 40 and 43 of the constitution which largely relate to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s powers to appoint the prime minister, Anwar asked the Federal Court to decide “whether a sitting prime minister enjoys a qualified immunity from civil suits in respect of alleged private acts predating his appointment”, adding that the civil suit would “impair the effective discharge of his executive functions and undermine the constitutional separation of powers”.
Anwar is also seeking the apex court’s ruling on whether allowing a civil suit involving allegations made against him before he took office would destabilise the “core institution of government”.
Other questions put to the Federal Court concerned his reputation amid “vexatious litigation that is strategically timed or politically weaponised to undermine his ability to govern”.
He also invoked the courts’ obligation “to protect a public officeholder’s liberty and dignity from litigation that may impair the ability to discharge public duties, where no criminal guilt has been established.”
Under Article 183 of the Federal Constitution, only the Agong and the ruler of a state shall be immune from civil or criminal action in his personal capacity unless such action is authorised by the attorney-general.