Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar fails to disqualify trial judge
High Court judge Zabidin Mohd Diah dismissed Anwar's application against him due to his refusal to cite a newspaper for contempt for using language that had been struck out of court proceedings.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim faced another setback in his politically charged sodomy trial on Thursday when his application to disqualify the judge for what he believes is bias was rejected. High Court judge Zabidin Mohd Diah dismissed Anwar's application against him due to his refusal to cite a newspaper for contempt for using language that had been struck out of court proceedings. A higher court on Wednesday rejected Anwar's application to strike out the charge against him while Malaysia's top court, the Federal Court, had earlier denied Anwar access to certain evidence against him. Anwar's trial was supposed to resume with the defence cross-examination of his 24 year-old male accuser but was adjourned to March 25 to allow Anwar to appeal the judge's rejection of his motion to stand down. Analysts said the setbacks could fuel concerns on whether Anwar would receive a fair trial from a judiciary which in 2000 convicted him of an earlier charge of sodomy. The case is being closely watched by foreign embassies and has drawn criticism from some Australian MPs and from John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee "The judiciary has to be careful to ensure that this trial is run in a just environment, because it is not only the judiciary at stake but the image of Malaysia," said political analyst Khoo Kay Peng. Anwar was first tried on corruption charges and then for sodomy after his sacking as deputy prime minister in 1998 amid a political feud with then premier Mahathir Mohamad. He denied the charges then and has again denied them, saying the prosecution is politically motivated. His sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004, freeing him from a six-year prison sentence to lead a three-party opposition alliance that staged Malaysia's biggest electoral success in 2008 when it deprived the government of its two-thirds parliamentary majority and ended up in control of five of the country's 13 states. Anwar was returned to parliament after a bar on him holding office elapsed and has led the opposition to victory in seven out of nine state and national by-elections since the 2008 polls. "The issue here is the denial of due process from the word go," Anwar told reporters outside court where about 100 of his supporters gathered, some wearing stickers with the Malay slogan "Fitnah 2".