Anwar bids to strike out case

Anwar bids to strike out case

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Jailed former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday that government prosecutors had used questionable tactics to try to convict him, and urged a judge to throw out a sodomy case he faces.

In an affidavit filed by his lawyers, Anwar said Malaysian government prosecutors had gone out of their way, after he was sacked in September, to put him behind bars, acting unprofessionally and showing bad faith.

Anwar and co-defendant Sukma Darmawan, facing charges of sodomizing the Anwar family's former driver, filed motions asking High Court Judge Ariffin Jaka to strike out the case. The judge said he would take up the issue on Friday.

Anwar, once a step away from the highest political post in the nation, was sentenced to six years in jail in April on four corruption charges. Unless he wins his appeal, the prison sentence will keep him out of public office until 2008.