ANWAR APPOINTS FOREIGN FORENSIC EXPERTS FOR SODOMY CASE

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
has appointed foreign DNA and forensic experts for the defence team to debunk
the prosecution's claim of DNA analysis in his sodomy trial.

His lawyer Sankara Nair said the People's Justice Party (PKR) leader had
engaged the services of DNA expert Dr Brian Leslie McDonald from Sydney,
Australia, and two forensic experts Prof Dr C. Damodaran from Chennai, India and
Associate Professor David Lawrence Noel Wells from Melbourne, Australia.

The People's Justice Party (Malay: Parti Keadilan Rakyat, often known simply
as Keadilan) is a centrist political party in Malaysia formed in 2003 by a
merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party.

In a statement e-mailed to the media Wednesday, Nair said he would be
bringing the experts to the Kuala Lumpur High Court at 9am, tomorrow.

On Feb 18, High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah is scheduled to
deliver his decision on Anwar’s application for the judge to recuse himself from
hearing the case.

Last week, Anwar applied to recuse Justice Mohamad Zabidin on the grounds
that his two rulings concerning news reports of the case had raised an element
of bias.

Anwar, 63, claimed trial to sodomising his former personal aide Mohd Saiful
Bukhari Azlan, 25, in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.


Attached together in the statement were their curriculum vitae.

Dr McDonald, who has a PhD in Pathology from the University of Western
Australia, has performed and reported over 5,000 paternity tests for family law
cases.

Dr McDonald, who is director of both DNA Consults and Molecular Genetics
for the Sonic Clinical Institute, has authored or co-authored 79 scientific
papers, chapters in books and conference proceedings.

Dr Damodaran, who has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Madras,
has 28 years' experience in forensics and teaching and 36 years' in analytical
biochemistry/biochemical toxicology forensic generics and biotechnology.

He was also the founder of India’s DNA Fingerprinting Initiative as well as
its first paternity testing centre. He had been involved in 96 research based
publications in leading journals and received the Home Minister award for
outstanding contribution to forensic science in 1995.

Dr Wells, who is division head (clinical foreign medicine) of the Victoria
Institute of Forensic Medicine, received the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Fellowship in 1992.

-- BERNAMA