From Canadian Press
By Eileen Ng
The court in the politically charged sodomy trial of Malaysia’s opposition leader on Thursday visited the apartment where a former aide says Anwar Ibrahim coerced him into sex – a charge the defendant says is part of a high-level conspiracy.
Prosecutors also submitted security footage that they said showed the young man was in the building when he claims.
Malaysia’s most prominent trial in a decade has the potential to reshape the country’s politics, since it could send one of Asia’s best-known politicians to prison for 20 years, the maximum punishment for sodomy in Malaysia. Anwar claims the charges have been trumped up by the ruling coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957, to prevent his opposition movement from taking power.
This is the second sodomy trial against Anwar, a crime that also carries a social stigma in the Muslim-majority country.
Earlier Thursday, the jury heard more lurid sex allegations as 24-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan testified for a second day behind closed doors.
After hearing Saiful’s testimony, the judge, lawyers from both sides, Anwar and his accuser went in a convoy to the condominium in the upscale neighbourhood of Damansara in Kuala Lumpur where the sodomy is alleged took place. The judge plans to return to the condominium on Friday to complete the inspection.
Prosecutors also submitted video from a closed circuit camera showing Saiful entering and leaving an elevator twice at the condominium. The date on the video is June 26, 2008, when Saiful says he was sodomized by his former boss, 62-year-old Anwar.
Saiful lodged a police report two days later. The prosecution says it plans to submit semen samples taken from Saiful’s body to prove Anwar is guilty.
Anwar has consistently denied the sodomy charges, saying it was a conspiracy by Prime Minister Najib Razak to prevent him and his opposition coalition from seizing power.
Anwar’s People’s Alliance made huge gains in the March 2008 general elections at the expense of Najib’s National Front coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957. The People’s Alliance hopes to win the next polls, due in 2013. Anwar, who is married with six children, is seen as a potential prime minister.
Much of Saiful’s testimony Thursday was recorded behind closed doors because of the explicit nature of his allegations. Reporters were allowed into the court room, however, when the prosecution submitted the video recording.
Reporters also heard Saiful describing the events after the alleged act. He said he went to two private hospitals. Initially he only complained of pain in the stomach and rectum but later told a doctor he had been sodomized.
The doctor advised him to go to a nearby government hospital as it was a potential criminal case. Only government hospital medical examinations are accepted by courts as evidence.
Saiful testimony on the first day was a bombshell because of its lurid details, which were reported in full on Thursday by all Malaysian government-controlled newspapers. Some of them used suggestive headlines.
Mainstream English daily, The Star, headlined its article “Sodomy Starts.” Malay-language Uttusan was bolder with “I Don’t Want to be Sodomized Again.”
Anwar’s lawyer Karpal Singh said the Uttusan headline amounted to trial by media and urged Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah to cite the newsapaper for contempt of court. But the judge refused to do so and asked Singh to file a police report against Uttusan instead.
“If they want to have a fair trail they must report fairly. It is my right to be tried fairly,” Anwar later told reporters. “It’s the same game they played in 1998,” he said, referring to the first sodomy trial he had to undergo after he was fired as deputy prime minister under then-leader Mahathir Mohamad.
He spent six years in prison from 1998 to 2004 for alleged corruption and sodomy before the sodomy conviction was overturned. Anwar maintains his innocence, insisting he was framed to prevent him from challenging Mahathir.
Mahathir denies that, just as the current prime minister, Najib, denies conspiring against Anwar.
But any doubts in the public mind about the fairness of the charge or the trial would boomerang on Najib, whose government is under pressure because of rising religious tensions following recent attacks on churches last month.
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