Anwar says trial is govt ploy to win election

Anwar says trial is govt ploy to win election

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Ousted politician Anwar Ibrahim, in a
statement from jail, accused the Malaysian government on Thursday
of trying him on a new sodomy charge to further smear his
reputation and ensure its victory in upcoming elections.

Anwar, the former No. 2 leader, said the government was
planning to call a snap election during his sodomy trial after
humiliating him with lurid sexual allegations and discrediting
his leadership ability. He cited unidentified informants.

"This is done to ensure their victory at general elections"
Anwar said in a statement obtained from his family. He called it
a "malicious prosecution."

A High Court judge ruled on Tuesday that Anwar, who has
already been convicted on corruption charges, will be tried with
his adopted brother, Sukma Dermawan, on charges of sodomizing a
man in 1992. A trial date will be set on May 4. Anwar denies all
the allegations, calling them trumped up to end the threat he
posed to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir has lost considerable support since firing Anwar in
September for alleged homosexual acts. Sodomy is a crime in
mostly Muslim Malaysia. While general elections are not scheduled
until April 2000, many predict a snap poll will be called as
early as June.

"The (ruling party's) supreme council leaders want Parliament
to be dissolved when I go to trial for sexual charges and before
my lawyers cross-examine the witnesses," Anwar said in the
statement.

Anwar, who was sentenced to six years in jail, faces four
additional sodomy charges and one of corruption. In his
statement, he said that recent charges brought against his
associates were part of the government's smear campaign and a
form of harassment.

Meanwhile, Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, called for political
support on Thursday for change in her country, saying the
Philippine "people power" experience was slowly taking shape in
Kuala Lumpur.

"Anwar is a victim of the corrupt system, a system fashioned
in the image of a once respected prime minister who has lost all
sense of perspective, all sense of right and wrong and all sense
of reality," Azizah said in Manila,

She said Filipinos understand what injustice was like having
endured 20 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos, and that
like many Filipinos then, Anwar was only trying to "reform the
system from within."

"I regard their support for me, and the National Justice party
as the Malaysian version of people power," she said, referring to
the 1986 bloodless revolt that sent Marcos into exile to Hawaii.

"Mrs. (Corazon) Aquino and the people of the Philippines, have
shown us the dictator can be overthrown if the masses draw a line
and say, enough. No more."

Aquino's late husband, opposition leader Benigno Aquino was
gunned down during Marcos's regime. His death eventually led to
the 1986 revolt that toppled his foe and installed his wife as
president.

President Joseph Estrada, meanwhile, said he has not received
a formal request for a meeting with Azizah, but said "there is no
reason why I shouldn't give her an audience".

"We are Filipinos, we are hospitable to our guests, especially
to foreign guests. There's nothing wrong with that as long as it
is private," Estrada told reporters.

He also advised Anwar to be "courageous" because the "truth
will set him free."

Azizah, who arrived in the Philippine capital on Wednesday as
Aquino's guest, said Mahathir has been employing "divide and
conquer tactics" by playing up the differences between Malaysian
Chinese and Malays.

However, she stressed Malaysians were "too wise" to fall prey
"to such blatant appeal to bigotry."