Anwar Ibrahim defiant as Malaysia’s top court hears sodomy appeal

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Anwar Ibrahim defiant as Malaysia’s top court hears sodomy appeal

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 11:02pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 11:04pm

Agence France-Presse in Putrajaya

Anwar Ibrahim outside the court yesterday. The hearing was extended to end tomorrow. Photo: Reuters

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday vowed to go out "fighting a corrupt government" as the country's top court began hearing his appeal against a second sodomy conviction that would send him back to jail and out of active politics.

Anwar was cleared by a lower court in 2012 of charges he sodomised a young former male aide, but that acquittal was controversially reversed in March by an appeal court, which sentenced him for five years in jail.

"I do not want to go jail but if I am forced to, I will go fighting a corrupt government," Anwar, 67, tweeted as the hearings began at the Federal Court, which was ringed by about 200 armed police and security barricades.

"If this is my last service to Malaysians, to the young, then this is my small sacrifice."

The session had been expected to end today with a ruling by a panel of judges, but Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria told the court it would be extended to tomorrow.

If jailed, Anwar also would lose his parliament seat - a blow for an opposition movement that rallied around his star power and now threatens to topple the coalition led by the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which has ruled for decades.

Anwar calls the case a long-running government conspiracy to destroy his career - and the opposition's momentum - by repeatedly tarring him with false charges.

The International Federation for Human Rights labelled the hearings "a decisive test for Malaysia's judiciary" and called for an unbiased ruling.

A popular former deputy prime minister, Anwar was sensationally ousted from Umno in a 1998 power struggle, beaten by police, and then jailed on sodomy and corruption charges widely seen as trumped up. He was released six years later when that sodomy conviction was overturned.

Anwar's downfall sparked massive anti-government demonstrations, invigorating an opposition that Umno had long kept in check.

Umno has governed racially diverse Malaysia since independence in 1957 under an authoritarian formula that reserves political primacy for the Muslim ethnic-Malay majority. But a new, multi-racial generation of voters has increasingly rebelled.

About 200 pro-Anwar and pro-government demonstrators gathered outside the court yesterday, but the situation was calm.

Political tensions have soared since last year's elections.

The court will also hear a government bid to lengthen Anwar's sentence. Sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.