He said it was decided to withdraw the appeal to speed up the trial for which the court had set March 25 for mention.
"Then (March 25), a date can be set for my team of lawyers to cross-examine Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan," he told reporters at his office in Parliament, here.
Anwar is facing a charge of sodomising Mohd Saiful, 25, a former personal assistant, at Unit 11-5-1, Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara, between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.
Application made on grounds of bias
He said the notice of withdrawal was filed through the law firm, SN Nair & Partners, at the Court of Appeal registry here today, and copies were sent to the High Court registry and the Attorney-General's Chambers.
The Court of Appeal had set March 19 to hear the appeal against the judge's refusal to recuse himself from the trial.
Anwar had applied to recuse the judge on Feb 8 on the grounds of bias after Mohamad Zabidin refused to entertain requests by Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh to cite Utusan Malaysia for contempt over two articles carried by the newspaper.
Anwar filed a notice of appeal on Feb 19 after Mohamad Zabidin had the previous day rejected the application to recuse himself.
The judge had also set March 25 for mention of the trial pending the outcome of the recusal appeal. - Bernama
