Anwar says sodomy charge derails poll plan
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's opposition leader AnwarIbrahim said on Tuesday he is shelving plans to contest aparliamentary by-election due to a "political conspiracy"behind a young aide's accusation of homosexual assault.
"The plan was for the announcement to be made today," Anwartold a news conference at his People's Justice partyheadquarters. "It has been derailed for some days, naturally."
The sodomy accusation was part of a high-level politicalconspiracy to keep him from entering parliament and to halt hiscampaign to woo defectors from the ruling National Frontcoalition, he said.
Anwar had earlier led scores of supporters shouting"reformasi" and "long live Anwar" to a police station tocomplain that evidence was cooked up against him on similarcharges a decade ago.
Police are investigating the former deputy premier forsodomising a 23-year-old aide, the same charge that landed himin jail for six years before the Federal Court overturned thatconviction in 2004. Sodomy is a crime punishable by up to 20years in prison in Malaysia.
Anwar said he planned to file a legal deposition soondemonstrating that his accuser, Saiful Bukhari, had close tieswith Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and his staff.
"This claim is frivolous and nonsensical," he said. "Iwould advise them to drop this case because it did not happen."
Najib, widely viewed as the heir apparent to Prime MinisterAbdullah Badawi and Anwar's chief rival for power, hasrepeatedly denied having anything to do with the case.
Anwar vowed at the news conference "to fight every inch ofthe way" against the sodomy allegation, which surfaced as therevitalised opposition under Anwar was trying to engineerparliamentary defections aimed at bringing down Abdullah'sgovernment.
FABRICATED EVIDENCE
The loose opposition alliance made historic gains in aMarch 8 general election, winning five of 13 state governmentsand coming within 30 seats of taking control of the 222-memberparliament.
Winning a seat in parliament would be the first step on theroad to Anwar's larger ambition of leading the opposition topower for the first time in Malaysian history.
Launching a counter-attack against the "politicalconspiracy", Anwar filed a report at a suburban police stationsaying the current police chief and attorney general fabricatedevidence against him in the 1998 sodomy case when they werepart of a team that investigated and prosecuted him.
Neither the national police chief nor the attorney generalhave commented on the case.
The events in the political arena weighed on Malaysia'sfinancial markets, with foreign exchange dealers saying theysuspected the central bank had stepped in to support theringgit currency against the dollar.
"Seems foreigners are not willing to touch this currency inthe short term until political news is gone," one Kuala Lumpurdealer said. Malaysian shares also weakened, with the benchmarkindex closing down 1 percent.
The allegations have overshadowed other political tempestsin Malaysia, including challenges to Abdullah's leadership,public anger over price rises, Najib's denials of a link to aMongolian model's murder case, and former premier MahathirMohamad being investigated for fixing judicial appointments.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abdullah was meeting Anwar'swife, Wan Aziz Wan Ismail. "Just say to him enough is enough,"Anwar said he told his wife.
The United States cautioned against any politicallymotivated investigation into Anwar. State Department spokesmanTom Casey noted that Anwar had been convicted previously onsimilar sodomy charges that were overturned in court. "So wewould hope that there's not a pattern here."
(Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Writing by BillTarrant; Editing by Alex Richardson)