Fresh twist in Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial has got a new twist following reports of “romantic relations” between the man who is alleged to have been sodomised and a lady prosecutor.

Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail confirmed that Farah Azlina Latif, the deputy public prosecutor, had been dropped from the prosecution team in the trial of Ibrahim who is accused of sodomising his former aide Mohammed Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Ethnic Indian lawyer-lawmaker Karpal Singh, who leads Ibrahim’s defence team, Monday applied before the high court that the entire prosecution team step down in view of the “compromised integrity”.

High Court judge Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said the court will hear the application next Monday before continuing with the cross examination of witnesses, The Star newspaper reported Monday.

Patail said the government’s action to drop the lady official was a follow-up to the allegation that she had had “a romantic relationship” with the key witness in the case.

The relationship was reported on the Malaysia Today website recently.

The trial, which began in 2008, is Ibrahim’s second on charges of sodomy.

A decade earlier, Ibrahim, who was then the deputy prime minister and finance minister under prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was sacked, put on trial on charge of sodomy and jailed.

Ibrahim staged a political comeback in March 2008 when an opposition alliance he leads won for the first time 88 seats in parliament and wrested control of four states.