Anwar's lawyer vows to have accuser disqualified

Kuala Lumpur: The lawyer for Malaysia's Anwar Ebrahim said on Tuesday he would seek to have Anwar's accuser disqualified for perjury.

The move is designed to cast doubts on a sodomy trial that could end the opposition leader's career.

Anwar has been charged with consensual sodomy but his former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, insisted under cross-examination by the defence on Tuesday that he was sodomised against his will.

The former deputy prime minister denies the charge, which he said was politically motivated to prevent him from wresting power following the government's record losses in the last general election in 2008.

A conviction in the trial, set to end in late August, carries a maximum 20-year jail term which would end the career of the 63-year-old politician. Sex between males is illegal in this Southeast Asian country.

Consensual and non-consensual sodomy are listed as separate offences.

The prosecution argued it was entitled to charge Anwar for either consensual or non-consensual sodomy but Anwar's lawyer, Karpal Singh, later said he would move to have Saiful disqualified for contradicting the charge.

‘Consensual' charge

"This is the first time in a criminal case in this country that you have a statement to the police saying that the act was non-consensual and yet the charge says consensual," Anwar told reporters outside the packed courtroom.

Malaysian media have reported the lurid details of this politically charged trial and published photos showing "in-camera" trial proceedings that prompted complaints by the opposition of bias.

Analysts say the media coverage signalled a more important battle over the case that was being waged in public between the Anwar-led opposition and Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling coalition.

"Despite the proceedings, in the court of public opinion people already seem to have made up their minds," said political analyst Ong Kian Ming.

"The more important question now is how far the continuing revelations in the trial will affect Anwar's image among those who now feel that this charge was manufactured."

Anwar leads an opposition group that denied the ruling coalition control in five of Malaysia's 13 states but was hit by a series of recent setbacks, including the resignation of four opposition MPs.