MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION leader Anwar Ibrahim has been acquitted of sodomy after a two-year trial that he insisted was politically motivated, and he has vowed to win general elections that may be held this year.
“Thank God justice has prevailed. I have been vindicated. To be honest I am a little surprised,” Mr Anwar (64) said shortly after Judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah said DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution was unreliable and discharged the case.
Yesterday’s verdict comes ahead of elections due in 2013, but these are widely expected to be called later this year.
“I am confident, God willing, that we will win if the elections are free and fair,” Mr Anwar said.
His wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and their six children, wept and hugged each other inside the court as the judgment was read. Had Mr Anwar been convicted he could have faced 20 years in prison. His supporters chanted “Long Live Anwar” and “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”) as he emerged from the courthouse.
Prime minister Najib Razak’s government said the verdict was proof of an independent judiciary and highlighted steps announced last year to boost freedoms.
Mr Anwar was deputy prime minister in Mahathir bin Mohamad’s government from 1993 to 1998, but was dismissed after he started to criticise Mr Mahathir.
He was charged with sodomy and corruption and the image of him in court in 1998 with a black eye and bruises after he was beaten up by a police chief was flashed around the world. He was convicted on both charges in 1999 and jailed for nine years. Human rights groups called him a political prisoner.
Malaysia’s supreme court overturned the sodomy conviction in 2004, and he became the most prominent figure in a loose grouping of opposition parties, which in March 2008 just failed to win an election. However, it did enough to give the ruling National Front coalition, led by Mr Najib, its worst results in half a century.
Mr Anwar did not run in that election because the corruption charge still stood and stopped him from taking part, though he did become an MP in parliament later.
He was again charged with sodomy in August of that year, and the trial began in February 2009.
