Ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said two of the three judges who dismissed his corruption appeal on Wednesday had contradicted their own judgment in a related case.

According to Anwar, Federal Court judge Haidar Mohd Noor and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Steve Shim who had both ruled in favour of one of his lawyers, Zainur Zakaria, in a contempt of court case had then taken High Court judge S Augustine Paul to task for his allegedly biased conduct.

Zainur, a senior lawyer, was cited for contempt by Paul after refusing to apologise for seeking to disqualify senior prosecutors Abdul Gani Patail now attorney-general and Azahar Mohamed for allegedly attempting to fabricate evidence against Anwar.

He was sentenced to three months jail but his appeal was allowed by a three-member Federal Court panel Haidar, Shim and Justice Abdul Malek Ahmad who rapped Paul for acting more like a prosecution instead of a judge.

"I noticed major contradictions in Haidar's reasoning when he justified Paul's appearing to lean towards the prosecution. Previously when he sat in Zainur's case, Paul was chastised. He even concurred with Justice Malek's findings against the prosecutor and the judge's conduct. Now Haidar has the audacity to contradict himself with impunity," said Anwar in a press statement, released by his lawyer Sankara Nair today.

Anwar added that this illustrated his charge that the Federal Court's decision against him was not independently made but was framed to fit a "pre-ordained political script".

"The panel had slavishly adhered to the script to the extent of not even daring to consider that the sentence should, as common judicial practice demands, begin from the date of arrest," he lamented.

Shim's views unknown

Two days ago the Federal Court dismissed Anwar's appeal and upheld the decision by justice Paul who on April 14, 1999 jailed the former politician for six years after finding him guilty of four counts of abusing his powers by tampering with police investigation into allegations of his sexual misconduct.

Although the three judges appeared in court to deliver the sentence, chairperson of the panel, Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, was the only one who spoke during the 20-minute proceeding, while Shim and Haidar had remained silent.

Anwar also expressed his concern that the Federal Court did not officially record the decision of justice Shim.

"Nowhere is it stated, either in oral or written form, that justice Shim had concurred with the decisions of the other judges which is the judicial norm," he said.

"Only Dzaiddin mentioned it was a unanimous decision. In my view it is unprecedented, raising obvious questions."

Haidar wrote the 60-page Federal Court judgment on issues of the Anwar conviction while Dzaiddin wrote a five-page judgment on the six-year sentence. There was no indication in the judgment that Shim agreed with his two colleagues.