Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim acquitted in sodomy trial

Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. AFP/KAMARUL AKHIR

(Editor’s Note: INQUIRER.net is reposting the story on Anwar Ibrahim’s acquittal to include the story sent by Professor Harry Roque, who was part of an International Observer Team, which witnessed Anwar’s trial on sodomy charges.)

KUALA Lumpur, Malaysia – In a surprise decision, the Kuala Lampur High Court acquitted Anwar Ibrahim from charges of sodomy.

The verdict read by Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah was promulgated at 9:21 a.m. and was cheered by a crowd of at least 20,000 that gathered at the vicinity of the courthouse.

At the Court room itself, Anwar appeared jubilant and took time out to thank his supporters gathered in the room, including his defense legal team that includes a former UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of the Judges and Lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, who himself earned the ire of Malaysian authorities when he referred to the Malay bench as being “corrupt”.

Anwar left his residence at Segambut, a suburb of Kuala Lampur, at 8:00 a.m. but arrived in the courtroom itself after 9. It took him around 30 minutes to get to the courtroom as a throng of admirers mobbed him as he made his way from his car to the courthouse, and then to the courtroom. The shower of adulation showed by Anwar’s supporters appeared to have overwhelmed his security details. Anwar and his family had to be surrounded by close friends and party mates in a make shift human chain to avoid being crashed by the throng of humanity that repeatedly chanted “reformasi”!

“Let us hope that the rule of law will prevail”, were the last words uttered by Ibrahim as he entered the court premises.

He told Filipino observer Fernando Pena of PDP-Laban that since he was expecting a conviction, he already had with him his toothbrush and medicines. Prior to Monday’s promulgation, Anwar spent six years in jail allegedly for misuse of power. An ex-aide, Saiful Bukhari, with known strong ties with the incumbent Prime Minister, Najib Razak, filed the latest charge for sodomy in 1998. Part of the prosecution evidence against him was DNA evidence that his supporters claimed were collected from him when he was then in detention.

In rendering an acquittal, the judge ruled that the DNA evidence offered by the prosecution was not completely reliable. “Hence, the evidence against him is solely the uncorroborated testimony of the complainant alone”. This, the Judge found to be insufficient.

At his home after the acquittal, Anwar declared: “What we witnessed today is the true spirit of people of people power that that we learned from the Filipino people”.

Anwar Ibrahim leads the PKR (People’s Justice Party), the largest opposition group challenging the administration party, UMNO. The latter has dominated Malaysian politics since 1957.

Ilham Marzuki of Selangor Foundation declared: “It’s the beginning of change and the beginning of the end for UMNO. They have overstayed their welcome.”

The verdict in the more than two-year trial defied the expectations of many political observers and even Anwar himself, who said the government of Prime Minister Najib was intent on eliminating him as a political threat.

It was the second sodomy verdict in a dozen years for Anwar, a former deputy premier in the 1990s who was next in line to head the country’s long-ruling government until a spectacular downfall.

The charismatic Anwar had been groomed to succeed former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad until a bitter row between them saw Anwar ousted in 1998, beaten and jailed on sodomy and graft charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Once the sodomy charge was overturned in 2004 and he was released, the affair threw Anwar into the opposition, which he led to unprecedented gains against his former ruling party in 2008 general elections.

But the new sodomy charges emerged shortly after those polls – Anwar was accused of sodomising a former male aide – sparking accusations they were concocted by the ruling United Malays National Organisation to stall the opposition revival.

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in jail.