A loud sigh of dissatisfaction could be heard outside the Palace of Justice this afternoon where Anwar Ibrahim’s supporters convened, after receiving news of the verdict date postponement.

Those who were expecting a decision in the Sodomy II appeal to be read out by the judges today would now have to wait longer to know the fate of Anwar, de facto leader of the Pakatan Rakyat. In one of the longest appeal case proceeding in the history of the nation, the Federal Court has postponed the decision to a later date.

It is likely that the court would take more than a week to read the verdict, as one of the judges, Chief Justice Ariffin Zakaria would be overseas next week.

Proceedings today saw lead defence councel Gopal Sri Ram complete his closing submissions while public prosecutor Shafee Abdullah was briefly allowed to submit some case laws to the five judges.

Gopal said that Saiful Bukhari’s credibility as a witness was in serious doubt, and that there is also much doubt that the alleged sodomy incident never took place. He also slammed Shafee for criticizing Anwar who called the case a conspiracy. He explained that Anwar has been charged with sodomy in 1998, which he was later found to be innocent of. Later, Anwar was later charged with sodomy with an entirely new person which is the case at hand, leading him to make that conclusion. Gopal told the court that Anwar should therefore be forgiven for concluding as such.

Later, when addressing more than a thousand supporters, Anwar Ibrahim commented on Shafee’s statement yesterday that he “would put the final nail on Anwar’s coffin” today. Anwar told his supporters that though he found no wrong in Shafee performing his duty as a public prosecutor and raising points against him (Anwar) in court, he felt that Shafee should have acted professionally instead of resorting to a scathing “hate filled political attack” on the opposition leader.

On the proceedings, Anwar expressed that he was grateful to the judges for allowing both sides the space they need for raising points. Bail has been extended and for now, the mercurial opposition leader will be allowed his freedom before the verdict is known.

He thanked all his supporters whom he called “teman yang setia” (faithful friends) for standing by him during the 8 days of the appeal.

“How could I ever find others like you, who have been by my side through the years of continually being hurled false allegations,” he said. -The Rocket