Lawyer says not allowed to see
                  Anwar's brother

                  July 6, 1999 
                  Web posted at: 4:56 AM EDT (0856 GMT) 

                  KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Reuters) - A lawyer appointed to represent the
                  adopted brother of former minister Anwar Ibrahim in a sex case said on
                  Tuesday he was denied access to the defendant while the man was in police
                  custody. 

                  K. Ganesan told the capital's High Court hearing Anwar's sodomy trial he
                  was surprised to learn later that a government lawyer had been appointed to
                  represent Sukma Darmawan in September last year. 

                  In a case that has opened political wounds in Malaysia, former finance
                  minister Anwar and boutique owner Sukma are being jointly tried for
                  allegedly sodomizing the Anwar family's former driver in 1993. 

                  Sukma in September confessed he had sex with Anwar. After a 30-minute
                  trial on September 19, the day before Anwar was arrested, he was
                  sentenced to six months in jail. 

                  Sukma, 37, later said he had been coerced into making the confession while
                  in police detention to frame Anwar, and that police had appointed a
                  government lawyer to represent him against his wishes. 

                  The prosecution had tried to enter Sukma's confession as evidence in the
                  joint trial and the defense moved to block it. The court then began a
                  "trial-within-a-trial" to determine the admissibility of the confession. 

                  Anwar, 51, was sentenced in April to six years in jail for corruption. He
                  claimed the charges against him were false and were part of a high-level
                  political plot to ruin his chances of ever succeeding Prime Minister Mahathir
                  Mohamad. 

                  Ganesan testified he and another lawyer had been appointed to represent
                  Sukma by Sukma's sister. But he said they were denied access to Sukma
                  while he was held at police headquarters despite appeals to two senior
                  police officers in charge of the case and the attorney-general's office. 

                  "I was never allowed to meet Sukma despite my repeated attempts to do
                  so," Ganesan told the court while being questioned by defense counsel
                  Christopher Fernando. 

                  Ganesan said he was not informed by police or the attorney-general's office
                  that a government lawyer, Mohd Noor Don, was going to be appointed to
                  represent Sukma. 

                  Sukma last week told the court he was told by police to accept Mohd Noor
                  as his counsel if he wanted early release from detention. The prosecution
                  contends that Sukma appointed Mohd Noor willingly. 

                  Ganesan said he received a call on September 19 from a man who identified
                  himself as Mohd Noor who said he was taking over the case. 

                  "I wanted to know how on earth he could take over the conduct of the
                  matter. He said he was called by Sukma the night before, and since Sukma
                  doesn't know me, he (Sukma) wanted Mohd Noor Don to represent him,"
                  Ganesan said.