Counsel R Sivarasa told High Court judge Azizul Azmi Adnan that the former prime minister and deputy prime minister could be additional witneses in view of new developments in the trial.
Azizul ordered Anwar’s legal team to file the witness statements of Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin by Feb 16.
Sivarasa said PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution and Penang PKR chief Dr Mansor Othman would also testify.
“We are considering calling Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin if they are going to be relevant and useful witnesses to prove Anwar’s case against Khairy,” he told reporters.
Anwar filed a RM100 million defamation suit against Khairy following the latter’s “main belakang” remark in a political ceramah at Lembah Pantai in 2008.
Anwar argues that the phrase meant that he is a homosexual, had low morals, and had the capability of committing crime and vice.
The PKR de facto leader filed the suit after reading what was reported in Malaysiakini and after watching a video published by the news portal.
Khairy, who is now youth and sports minister, is relying on the defence of justification and estoppel.
Estoppel is a legal principle that bars a party from denying or alleging a certain fact owing to that party’s previous conduct, allegation or denial.
Lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who took the stand, told the court he had prepared a statutory declaration (SD) for Anwar’s speech writer Dr Munawar Ahmad Anees on events leading to his client’s arrest and confession to allowing the former deputy prime minister to sexually abuse him.
Manjeet said Munawar had pleaded guilty to an offence under the Penal Code and was sentenced to six months jail.
However, Munawar was warded in the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital after a heart attack and the lawyer said he was engaged to file an appeal against conviction and sentence.
The High Court and later the Court of Appeal dismissed Munawar’s appeal without hearing the merit of the case.
Manjeet said Munawar was humiliated, brainwashed, interrogated, drugged and tortured into a false confession by police and special branch officers.
He said the 55-page SD was completed in November after a series of meetings with Munawar .
Manjeet said his client, who is residing in Lahore, Pakistan, could not come to tender the SD as evidence in favour of Anwar because the events of 1998 still haunted him and he still feared the police.
“An innocent man has been subjected to such abuse at the hands of the authorities, and all he needed was an open, fair hearing to prove his innocence.
“It may never have taken away the pain but it would have restored his dignity. This was not justice served as I know it,” he said.
Sivarasa said Manjeet, who recorded and prepared the SD, was tendering the document as evidence since Munawar was unable to come to Malaysia.
“This is allowed in a civil case as provided under the Evidence Act,” he told reporters when asked for clarification.
Sivarasa said the court judgments against Munawar could not be relied upon as the confession was obtained through coercion.
Hearing before Azizul was adjourned to Feb 20.