Malaysia pursues sodomy charges against Anwar

The Malaysian High Court refused the request of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Monday to have sodomy charges against him dropped after claims that his accuser and a member of the prosecution had an affair.

Photo: Reuters

Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah ruled that there was no proof to support the defence argument that Saiful Bukhari Azlan received confidential trial information from the junior prosecutor.

The judge said the allegations that Saiful and the lawyer Farah Azlina Latif were romantically involved were presumably true as the prosecution made no efforts to deny them. He said that her role as a “note-taker” in the trial however, meant that she had no access to sensitive information that could compromise the legal process.

Saiful accused Anwar, who was jailed on separate sex and corruption counts ten years ago, of sodomising him at an upmarket Kuala Lumpur condominium in 2008. Sodomy is against the law in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

He has condemned the latest allegations as a conspiracy designed to end his career, and said the relationship between his accuser and the prosecutor is more proof that the trial is biased.