Anwar pleads not guilty to sodomy charges; released on bail

Jaishree Balasubramanian

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 7 (PTI) Malaysian opposition leader
Anwar Ibrahim pleaded not guilty of sodomy charges against
him, calling them "malicious" as a court released him on bail
Thursday.

"This is a slander, it is a malicious allegation and I am
not guilty," Ibrahim said from the dock after being accused of
sodomising 23-year-old aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan on
June 26. The sodomy charges carries a maximum penalty of 20
years in prison.
Sessions Court judge Komathy Suppiah ordered that the

sixty year-old Ibrahim could go free on a Rs 2.4 lakh bond
until the next hearing on September 10. This will enable the
de facto opposition leader to campaign for the Permatang Pauh
parliamentary seat by-election later this month.

Dr Wan Aziza, Ibrahim's wife, who heads the People's
Justice Party has resigned her Permatang Pauh parliamentary
seat to enable her husband to enter parliament through a
by-election which is to be held end of this month.

The former deputy prime minister has consistently
maintained his innocence, dismissing the sodomy charges as a
fabrication of lies.

Ibrahim's 23-year-old aide Mohd Saiful had lodged a
police report alleging that the opposition leader had
sodomised him in an apartment here on June 26.

Uniformed and plainclothes policemen cordoned the court
today as Ibrahim's supporters thronged the area.

In anticipation of protests, major roads leading into
the capital Kuala Lumpur were closed with roadblocks, causing
major traffic jams.

Earlier, Ibrahim arrived at the court to the chants of
'reformasi' (reformation) from supporters gathered outside the
court complex. He was accompanied by his wife and eldest
daughter Nurul Izzah, who is a member of parliament.

It will be the second time in a decade that Ibrahim
has been charged with sodomy, a crime that carries a penalty
of six to twenty years in prison.

He had earlier spent six years in jail and was freed only
after the court threw out the previous sodomy charges against
him.
Sodomy is illegal even among consenting adults in

Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had
Wednesday denied Anwar's claims that the government had
engineered the allegations.

Badawi said that the charges against Ibrahim were not a
conspiracy, and he could not be charged by the police without
any evidence.