Shafee: DNA reading perfect and pristine

The prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy case says the defence was playing on semantics.

UPDATED

PUTRAJAYA: Prosecutor Shafee Abdullah defended the findings of chemist Seah Lay Hong against the case made by Anwar Ibrahims chief counsel by telling the court that government doctors had said the DNA reading, and not the DNA samples, was perfect and pristine.

Describing the defences insistence on pristine DNA samples as a play on semantics, Shafee gave the court the example of a murdered woman in Queensland, Australia. The case, R vs Butler, saw DNA being retrieved from a towel buried for 13 years and used to secure a conviction when the DNA matched. Shafee explained his choice of example by telling the court that Queenslands climate is as tropical as Malaysias

Shafee also took the defence to task for failing to follow up on the claim of an alibi. None of the witnesses listed on the alibi notice was called for cross examination, he said, noting that alleged sodomy victim Saiful Bukhari Azlan was cross examined on his alibi.

The defence cannot simply abandon the defence of alibi, he said. Once you have opened the umbrella, you must use it irrespective of rain or shine.

He cited an Indian Supreme Court decision in a case in which a politician was charged with the murder of his wife to keep their marriage hidden. He attempted to dispose of the body in a tandur oven.

The politician, Shafee told the court, had given a notice of alibi but failed to call witnesses to prove the alibi, causing an adverse inference to be invoked. The politician was convicted as the body was burnt in a restaurant that he owned.

Shafee attacked the credibility of defence witnesses Dr Brian McDonald and Dr Mohd Osman Abdul Hamid.

Reiterating his stand that McDonald, a DNA expert, was an armchair witness, Shafee told the court that he will testify to anything under the sun, and that his testimony had been rejected since 2007. He has been rejected in many courts in Australia and Brunei.

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Shafee: DNA reading perfect and pristine