Another Bender?

image source: abovethelaw

Read it and weep, this is from the Judgment delivered by the Federal Court when the three panel Judges with majority 2-1 overturned sodomy conviction against DSAI.

“To summarise our judgment, even though reading the appeal record, we find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen, sometime, this court, as a court of law, may only convict the appellants if the prosecution has successfully proved the alleged offences as stated in the charges, beyond reasonable doubt, on admissible evidence and in accordance with established principles of law....."

"In this case Azizan’s evidence on the “date” of the incident is doubtful as he had given three different “dates” in three different years, the first two covering a period of one month each and the last covering a period of three months. He being the only source for the “date”, his inconsistency, contradiction and demeanor when giving evidence on the issue does not make him a reliable source, as such, an essential part of the offence has not been proved by the prosecution. "....

"While the testimonies of Dr. Mohd. Fadzil and Tun Haniff and the conduct of the first appellant confirm the appellants’ involvement in homosexual activities, such evidence does not corroborate Azizan’s story that he was sodomised by both the appellants at the place, time and date specified in the charge. In the absence of any corroborative evidence it is unsafe to convict the appellants on the evidence of an accomplice alone unless his evidence is unusually convincing or for some reason is of special weight which we find it is not."

"Furthermore, the offence being a sexual offence, in the circumstances that we have mentioned, it is also unsafe to convict on the evidence of Azizan alone. "......