KUALA LUMPUR - LAWYERS for Malaysian opposition leader Anwar
Ibrahim on Monday sought to implicate the country's prime minister
in a conspiracy to frame Anwar on charges that he sodomised a
former male aide.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has admitted meeting Anwar's accuser,
Saiful Bukhari Azlan, after he said he was sodomised by Anwar, but
before a complaint was made to the police in March 2008. Najib has
also denied interfering in the case.
Saiful told the court that he met Najib on March 24, two days
before his deposition stated that Anwar, the 63-year-old opposition
leader, had sodomised him, a crime in this mainly Muslim country,
and four days before he went to the police. 'I told him (Najib)
about my problems,' a nervous-looking Saiful, now 25, told the
Kuala Lumpur High Court on the first day of his cross-examination
by Anwar's lawyers. He did not elaborate on what his problems
were.
If convicted, Anwar could be jailed for 20 years, a sentence
that would effectively end the career of the man who has succeeded
in uniting Malaysia's opposition rainbow coalition of Islamists,
reformers and ethnic Chinese political parties. Anwar was convicted
of sodomy in 2000, adding to an earlier sentence for corruption,
following his ouster as deputy prime minister at the height of the
1998 Asian financial crisis. The earlier sodomy conviction in a
trial that was widely criticised for being unfair was overturned on
appeal.
Najib was deputy prime minister at the time of the alleged
sodomy and took the top job in April last year, pledging to open up
the economy and mend tensions between the majority Malay and
minority ethnic Chinese and Indian populations.
'The prime minister is involved. There is a political conspiracy
to eliminate Anwar from his seat,' defence lawyer Karpal Singh told
the court. Karpal on Monday also challenged Saiful's claims that he
had been sodomised, saying they were not backed up by a medical
report. The trial is due to last until August.
--REUTERS