Sex and corruption strange bedfellows in Anwar trial
Sex and corruption strange bedfellows in Anwar trial
By Nelson Graves
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Sex and corruption have been strange
bedfellows from the start of Anwar Ibrahim's trial.
But they were never stranger than on Wednesday when government
prosecutors abruptly altered four charges against Malaysia's
former finance minister.
A stained mattress, DNA tests of semen and saliva, a self-
described homosexual sex slave -- the first two months of
Anwar's trial have thrust a steady stream of seamy testimony and
evidence into the limelight.
From the start, Anwar and his lawyers wondered out loud what
all this had to do with corruption. Now they say they know.
None of the five corruption charges, either in their original
or amended form, accuse Anwar of corruption in its most common
interpretation -- the illegal accumulation of wealth.
There were no foreign bank accounts, yachts, luxury cars or
bribes. Instead, the focus has been as much on sex as corruption,
enabling the prosecutors to allege secret trysts in a posh
suburban apartment.
"This is the first time we recall in a corruption trial where
there is no money or property involved," Anwar's lawyer
Christopher Fernando said recently.
For weeks, a mattress with 13 stained patches cut out of its
cover has leaned against the wall of the High Court, in the words
of Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, "the silent star
witness".
The normally staid media, closely controlled by parties in
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's governing coalition, has thrown
its conservative instincts to the wind and given prominent
display to the most sordid testimony.
The four corruption counts at issue since the trial began on
Nov. 2 allege that Anwar misused his power as then deputy prime
minister and finance minister to coerce police.
The fifth charge alleges he interfered with an investigation
by the Anti-Corruption Agency into his former private secretary,
suspected of receiving a bribe.
The problem for Anwar's lawyers from the start has been that
each of the four corruption charges under examination relates to
supposed sexual misconduct.
The initial corruption counts alleged that he directed police
to obtain confessions and written statements from his two main
accusers denying sexual misconduct and sodomy.
The prosecution, which so far during the trial has controlled
the choice of witnesses, has called numerous police officers who
say Anwar ordered them to get the retractions.
But the six-member team of government lawyers has repeatedly
shifted the focus to the sexual allegations themselves, calling
the two accusers as witnesses and asking them to confirm their
accounts of 1997.
The defense has counter-attacked, and appeared to score a
victory last week when a government chemist said he could not
prove that Anwar's semen had not been planted on the mattress.
On Wednesday -- the 45th day of the trial -- the prosecution
amended the four corruption charges. The change that drew the ire
of the defense was the introduction of the word "allegation"
before the words "sexual misconduct" and "sodomy".
Judge Augustine Paul sided with the prosecution, saying the
changes did not alter the fundamental gist of the charges as they
pertain to the corruption statute.
But Anwar's lawyers said the prosecution would not have needed
to dwell on sex if the charges all along had alleged mere
allegations of sex crimes.
"Having smeared the reputation of the accused, the prosecution
now tells us that the sodomy and misconduct are not strictly an
important part of this case," Anwar's chief counsel, Raja Aziz
Addruse, told reporters.
It was not clear what impact the amendments would have on
Augustine, who is judge and jury in the High Court trial, or
Anwar's fate.
Once the court finishes with the four corruption charges, it
will turn to the fifth corruption charge and the five sodomy
counts.
Wan Azizah said: "Anwar will be vindicated with the grace of
God. The prosecution's retreat into the legal technicality of
their right to amend cannot mask the truth."