Final Appeal for Anwar to Begin in Malaysia

By admin-s On Oct 28, 2014

It is a case that would have been laughed out of court in any rational justice system.

John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel

‘Sodomy II’ trial reaches final phase in politicized high court. Anwar’s political future at stake.

On Oct. 28 and 29, lawyers for Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim are expected to go before the Federal Court, the country’s highest tribunal, to argue a final appeal on Anwar’s 2012 conviction in the so-called Sodomy II trial.

Anwar was ordered freed by a high court in 2011 only to be convicted by an appellate court after prosecutors appealed the case, in which he was accused of having consensual homosexual sex with a former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhairy Azlan, in 2008.

The opposition leader, now 67, is said to be depressed and fully expecting to go to prison, which would finish his political career, even if freed early, since Malaysian electoral law prohibits those convicted of crimes for running for five years. The question is, if he is jailed, what would become of the three-party Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which was already badly damaged by political infighting earlier this year over the naming of a new chief minister for Selangor, Malaysia’s richest and most populous state.

Given the weakness in the coalition, there is some speculation that what is obviously an extremely politicized court could be ordered to free Anwar, given the international opprobrium the decision would earn the country and the fact that jailing him would give the coalition a potent symbol of martyrdom.

Although the case against Anwar is almost universally regarded by human rights organizations and foreign governments as a circus trumped up to get rid of him as a force to challenge the ruling Barisan Nasional, it has preoccupied the opposition leader for the past six years, cutting into his ability to lead Pakatan Rakyat, which won the popular vote in the 2013 general election only to be thwarted from a majority in parliament by gerrymandering and the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that the entire episode, starting with Anwar’s arrest in 2008, has been organized to try to blunt the increasing effectiveness of the coalition at a time when the ruling Barisan Nasional is riddled with corruption and cronyism. The charges were filed against him not long after the coalition made a dramatic showing in the 2008 election, denying the Barisan its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time.