Lawyers for Malaysia’s Anwar cry foul
(AFP) – Lawyers representing Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim expressed doubts about his chances of receiving a fair hearing, a day before opening their defence in his sodomy trial.
The 63-year-old father-of-six is on trial over allegations that he sodomised a 25-year-old former aide at an upmarket apartment in June 2008.
Counsel Sankara Nair told AFP on Sunday that the prosecution had allowed Anwar’s legal team to interview only five of the 25 witnesses that they had been promised.
They had yet to interview Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, who had met Mohamad Saiful Bukhari, the man allegedly sodomised by Anwar, after the purported event.
“Our hands are tied in trying to provide Anwar with a proper defence as the prosecution has refused to provide us with all the witnesses that they promised to produce,” he said.
“How can Anwar get a fair trial when we can’t even interview the prosecution’s witnesses in order to decide who to call?” he added.
Last week, Anwar, a former deputy premier, filed a third attempt to remove High Court judge Zabidin Mohamed Diah from the trial, claiming that the judge was biased against him.
His legal team said Zabidin had made “a conclusive finding” by stating that the prosecution had “proved their case beyond reasonable doubt” and in doing so “effectively convicted Anwar before he had given his defence”.
Last month, the high court ruled that Anwar had a case to answer after finding the prosecution’s main witness “credible”.
Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia, whether or not it is between consenting adults.
Anwar insists the accusations are part of a long-running government plot to derail his political career, but authorities have denied any conspiracy.
He was sacked as deputy premier by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and found guilty of corruption and sodomy, but was released from jail in 2004 after the sodomy conviction was overturned.
He has since become an electoral threat to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which has been in power for half a century.
A win by pro-Anwar leaders this weekend in party polls for the conservative Islamic party PAS, a key member of Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat alliance, has also signalled a strengthening of Anwar’s position in an opposition alliance riven by infighting, say analysts.
Anwar could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted. The marathon trial began in January last year but has been punctuated by delays.
