International observer Mark Trowell QC is to attend the appeal hearing of opposition leader Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim which is listed to be heard by the Court of Appeal on 17-18 September.
Mr. Trowell is the joint- chairman of Lawasia’s standing committee on criminal law. He is an experienced criminal advocate who has not only acted as defence counsel for some of the significant cases in Australia, but has also prosecuted on behalf of the DPP. He has appeared as counsel at various Royal Commissions and at special inquiries before the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC)
Mr. Trowell QC was appointed by the Australian Government in 2006 to undertake a review of the coercive legislative powers of the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).
Throughout 2005-2006, in Perth and Sydney, he acted as counsel on behalf of the masters of foreign fishing vessels that had been seized by the Australian Customs for allegedly poaching the Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. He was subsequently involved in negotiations at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg on behalf of the owners of foreign fishing vessels.
Since 2002 he has acted as an international observer for several organisations, including the Australian Bar Association, Lawasia, the International Commission of Jurists, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Union Internationale des Advocates and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
On behalf of these organisations, he has observed and reported on the trials and appeals of the opposition leaders of Malaysia (former deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim) and Sri Lanka (General Sarath Fonseka). More recently, he has also observed the sedition trial of veteran Malaysian advocate Karpal Singh and contempt charges against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen of Sri Lanka.
Earlier this year he represented the IPU at the criminal trial of several prominent members of the UDD (known as the Red Shirts) charged with treason in Thailand. He is the bestselling author of the recent publication “The Trial of Anwar Ibrahim – Sodomy II”.
Mr. Trowell QC will be representing the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which is the international organisation of parliaments representing more than 162 sovereign parliaments around the world. He will also be representing LAWASIA, which is an international organisation of lawyers’ associations, individual lawyers, judges, legal academics, and others which focuses on the interests and concerns of the legal profession in the Asia Pacific region.