Group urges Mahathir to resign
Group urges Mahathir to resign
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Several hundred people demonstrated peacefully near a shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, shouting slogans for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to quit, witnesses said.
Their shouts of "Mahathir resign" and "Reformasi" (Reform) at a busy intersection were greeted by the blaring of car horns in an apparent show of support by passing motorists. They were watched by around 50 uniformed policemen.
Witnesses said the police subsequently blocked off roads leading to the shopping area and asked the protesters to disperse.
The street demonstration, the first in about two months, is an echo of the spontaneous movement for reform which grew following the shock sacking of the then finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, last September.
The capital last year saw a wave of sometimes violent street protests since Anwar was arrested on Sept. 20 on five counts of corruption and another five of sodomy which he denies.
The Malaysian High Court on Saturday dealt a legal blow to Anwar, ordering him to enter a defense in his criminal trial on four corruption charges.
The decision by High Court Judge Augustine Paul means the trial, which started in November, will continue with Anwar's lawyers calling witnesses.
The defense has said it plans to call Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin in what was widely expected to be a highly political phase of the trial.
"After having considered the evidence relevant to the charges and the submission of learned counsel, I find that the prosecution has made out a prima facie case against the accused on each of the four cases as amended.
"In other words, the prosecution has prima facie established the ingredients of an offense," Augustine said.
"I therefore call upon the accused to enter upon his defense on all the four charges as amended," said Augustine, who is judge and jury in the trial.
Anwar, 51, was sacked and arrested in September, and charged later that month with five counts each of corruption and sodomy.
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The court has been examining four of the corruption charges since the trial began.
As the judge issued his ruling, about 100 supporters of Anwar stood quietly outside the courthouse in the center of the capital Kuala Lumpur. They held up two banners -- "Justice, Augustine Paul" and in Malay, "Justice for All".
Under Malaysia's legal system, after the prosecution had finished its case earlier this month and both sides had summed up their positions, Augustine had to choose between dismissing the charges or ordering Anwar to mount a defense.
Augustine had been expected to order Anwar to offer a defense as judges rarely throw out charges at this stage of trials.
During the first three months of the trial, the prosecution called witnesses to support its argument that in August 1997, Anwar had abused his authority as then deputy prime minister and finance minister.
The four corruption charges in question allege that Anwar directed two police officers to obtain written statements from his former driver and the sister of his former private secretary denying allegations of sodomy and adultery by Anwar.
Each of the corruption counts carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail and a 20,000-ringgit (US$5,000) fine. Each of the sodomy charges carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and whipping.