Kuala Lumpur, Dec 1 (IANS) Malaysia’s controversial opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was Tuesday ordered to stand trial for sodomy as a court turned down his bid to have the charges dismissed.
The trial will begin next month, said the Star Online, the website of the Star newspaper.

Ibrahim faces 20 years imprisonment if he is convicted of sodomising 24-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who was an aide in his office, last year.

High court judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah rejected Ibrahim’s argument that two medical reports on his accuser showed no sodomy had taken place.

“The medical reports alone cannot be used to strike out the case until all witnesses give their evidence,” the judge said.

He said Ibrahim’s lawyers had failed to prove their allegations of conspiracy and bad faith on the part of Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail, who acted as a prosecutor in Anwar’s earlier sodomy and corruption trials that began in 1998.

Then the country’s deputy prime minister, he was dismissed and suffered six years of imprisonment till the sodomy charge as overturned.

“I’m worried and disturbed by the court’s decision,” Ibrahim said in his initial reaction.

“This is the first case in modern times where a court is ignoring medical reports which said there was no tear or penetration.”

“I think we are in for a tough battle but we will fight hard,” Ibrahim said about the trial ahead on charges he claims are a conspiracy aimed at ending his political career.

Zabidin set a date of Jan 25 for the sodomy trial, which has been delayed by a series of legal manoeuvres by the defence team, including a failed application to disqualify the prosecutors as biased.

Defence lawyers said they would lodge an appeal against the high court decision Wednesday and were also considering an application to halt the Jan 25 hearing.

The second sodomy charge against Ibrahim came last year even as he staged an impressive political comeback, rallying an opposition alliance that won 88 parliamentary seats and control of four states in the elections of March 2008.

However, Ibrahim has not made good his threats of capturing power for which he set specific dates last year.