‘Sodomy II attacks increased after Sept 16 coup bid’
The US expects another dirty round of judicial exploitation by the ruling coalition to kill off Anwar Ibrahim.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Washington believed the intense attack on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim while facing his Sodomy II trial escalated out of fear over his Sept 16 attempt to wrest federal power through mass defections.
A leak diplomatic cable by whistleblower site WikiLeaks – published in Malaysia Today today – also showed that the US expected another dirty round of judicial exploitation by the ruling coalition to kill off the PKR leader’s political career as Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak would want his nemesis wiped out.
“Senior Malaysian authorities were very aggressive in handling the present case during the initial period of June-September 2008, but, coinciding with the passing of Anwar’s deadline to bring down the government through parliamentary cross-overs, have since taken a more measured ‘rule-of-law’ approach in public.
“The authorities have not taken all the legal and extra-legal measures available to them, for example, to challenge Anwar’s bail provisions or resolve an earlier impasse regarding the court venue,” political counsellor with the Malaysian US Embassy, Mark D Clark, was quoted as saying.
Anwar is currently in the docks for the second time in 10 years for allegedly sodomising his aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008 just months after the opposition scored significant gains in the March 8 polls the same year.
He claimed openly that the charges were trumped up and were engineered by Najib, who was deputy prime minister at the time, and wife Rosmah Mansor – an allegation they denied.
Anwar’s defence lawyers have asked the court to grant them rights to interview the two but both said they will not do it unless subpoenaed.
Clark said in the cable that the court would likely favour Najib and Rosmah and not force them to face Anwar’s lawyers.
‘Conviction is the desired outcome’
The leaked cable further stated that it concurred with the view that conviction would see Anwar, now in his mid-60s, “killed off” while Najib would make it pass as a “normal law enforcement matter”.
It also said that indications of political interference and manipulation in the present case (Sodomy II) are compelling.
