From Bloomberg
By Ranjeetha Pakiam
Lawyers for Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim asked for the sodomy charges against him to be dropped following accusations last week that a member of the prosecution team had an affair with the main witness in the case.
“The integrity of the entire prosecution is compromised,” Defense lawyer Karpal Singh told judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah. Singh said that as a result of the alleged affair, Saiful would have had access or been aware of papers from the investigation and he called for the entire team to resign.
Junior deputy public prosecutor Farah Azlina Latif was dropped from the team after allegations that she was romantically linked to Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Anwar’s accuser, surfaced on a news website, the New Straits Times reported on July 28, citing Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail.
A letter dated July 26 to Solicitor-General II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden asking him to deny or confirm the allegations is still unanswered, said Anwar’s lawyer Sankara Nair.
Anwar is currently being tried for sodomy after the 24- year-old former male aide filed a complaint with police in June 2008. Sodomy, defined as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in Malaysia, even if the act is between two consenting men.
He has denounced the charge as a “malicious accusation” that was trumped up” by political opponents. At the start of the trial, Anwar said he planned to subpoena Prime Minister Najib Razak to testify in the trial, accusing the premier and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, of conspiring to frame him.
“The trial serves to distract Anwar and the opposition from what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center, an independent research institute near Kuala Lumpur. But “it also undercuts Najib’s credibility as being a reformist. The majority feels that it’s a political trial” so it lacks credibility, he said.
Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was widely tipped to be the next leader of the country, faced similar allegations in 1998 when he fell out with then-premier Mahathir Mohamad. He was sentenced to nine years in jail for sodomy and a separate corruption charge. He was released from prison in 2004 after the conviction was overturned.
Barred from politics until April 2008, Anwar won a seat in his former constituency in Permatang Pauh in August that year.
The trial, which began on Feb 3 after a series of delays following the defense team’s efforts to get certain documents, was put on hold again as Anwar’s lawyers made another attempt to see the prosecution’s medical evidence.
By Ranjeetha Pakiam
Lawyers for Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim asked for the sodomy charges against him to be dropped following accusations last week that a member of the prosecution team had an affair with the main witness in the case.
“The integrity of the entire prosecution is compromised,” Defense lawyer Karpal Singh told judge Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah. Singh said that as a result of the alleged affair, Saiful would have had access or been aware of papers from the investigation and he called for the entire team to resign.
Junior deputy public prosecutor Farah Azlina Latif was dropped from the team after allegations that she was romantically linked to Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Anwar’s accuser, surfaced on a news website, the New Straits Times reported on July 28, citing Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail.
A letter dated July 26 to Solicitor-General II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden asking him to deny or confirm the allegations is still unanswered, said Anwar’s lawyer Sankara Nair.
Anwar is currently being tried for sodomy after the 24- year-old former male aide filed a complaint with police in June 2008. Sodomy, defined as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in Malaysia, even if the act is between two consenting men.
He has denounced the charge as a “malicious accusation” that was trumped up” by political opponents. At the start of the trial, Anwar said he planned to subpoena Prime Minister Najib Razak to testify in the trial, accusing the premier and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, of conspiring to frame him.
“The trial serves to distract Anwar and the opposition from what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center, an independent research institute near Kuala Lumpur. But “it also undercuts Najib’s credibility as being a reformist. The majority feels that it’s a political trial” so it lacks credibility, he said.
Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who was widely tipped to be the next leader of the country, faced similar allegations in 1998 when he fell out with then-premier Mahathir Mohamad. He was sentenced to nine years in jail for sodomy and a separate corruption charge. He was released from prison in 2004 after the conviction was overturned.
Barred from politics until April 2008, Anwar won a seat in his former constituency in Permatang Pauh in August that year.
The trial, which began on Feb 3 after a series of delays following the defense team’s efforts to get certain documents, was put on hold again as Anwar’s lawyers made another attempt to see the prosecution’s medical evidence.
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