Lawyers clash in Anwar trial

Lawyers clash in Anwar trial

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Defense and prosecution lawyers in the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trial clashed on Tuesday about whether a surgeon should be allowed to testify about an anal operation he performed on Anwar's adopted brother.

Anwar, 52, who is serving a six-year jail term for corruption, is on trial for allegedly sodomizing his former family driver, Azizan Abdul Bakar. Anwar's adopted brother, Sukma Dermawan, is charged with assisting in the homosexual act which prosecutors say occurred sometime between January to March in 1993.

Prosecutors hope to prove that there was a pattern of homosexual acts by Sukma and Anwar. They called on a respected Kuala Lumpur doctor, Abel Armugam, to the witness stand to describe his examination of Sukma and a subsequent operation of the rectum.

When he began to testify that Sukma suffered from hemorrhoids, the defense lawyers protested loudly.