Anwar to face trial for Sodomy II in January
By Debra ChongKUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Exactly like 10 years ago, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today failed to escape trial for sodomy.
High Court judge DAtuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah here tossed out the PKR adviser's bid to strike out the sodomy charge against him and fixed the trial to be from January 25 to February 25 next year.
The 62-year-old grandfather stands accused of sodomy for the second time in his life; this time, it is with a former male aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 24.
Anwar's defence lawyers had earlier argued that the charge was a baseless political conspiracy because several government and private doctors had in their reports not found any signs of forced penetration on Mohd Saiful.
But the public prosecutor, led by Solicitor General II Datuk Yusof Zainal Abiden, had last week claimed they had extra medical evidence to show Mohd Saiful had been sexually involved with his ex-boss.
Yusof drew the court's attention to a government-run Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) report which noted finding “a mixture of male DNA from two individuals” through a swabbing of Mohd Saiful's anus.
The senior lawyer from the Attorney General's Chambers added that it had more such forensic and oral evidence to support the sodomy charge.
Anwar was arrested and subsequently charged with committing sex against the order of nature on August 7 last year, just before he bounced back into Parliament after taking back his old Permatang Pauh seat in a by-election.
The former deputy prime minister had spent six years behind bars for the crime a decade ago before the conviction was reversed.
Despite having assembled some of the finest legal eagles in the city, such as Raja Aziz Addruse, 73, to challenge this second charge against him, Anwar failed to stop the case before it goes to trial.
source : themalaysianinsider
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