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."