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From: AFP
Date: 04 May 1999
Time: 06:05:12
KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (AFP) - A Malaysian high court judge Tuesday issued a gag order and set June 7 as the date for the trial of ousted deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy, only weeks after he was jailed for six years for corruption. Justice Abdul Wahab Patail barred lawyers from making public comments and ordered journalists to restrict their reports to the proceedings of the trial.
"No counsel, person or party shall make any comment, statement or interview in relation to the proceedings before the court or any matter related to it," the judge said.
"Only factual evidence or submissions is permitted to be published. Any reporter from any media organisation breaching the order shall be barred from the court."
Anwar's sodomy trial will be conducted jointly with two sodomy charges against his Indonesian adopted brother Sukma Darmawan.
Anwar was fired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in September last year and later that month arrested as a threat to national security, unleashing the biggest anti-government protests here in decades.
His earlier trial for corruption -- the longest in Malaysian history -- started in November and ended last month with his conviction on all four charges.
Abdul Wahab said the joint trial of Anwar and Sukma would be heard "by myself or any judge appointed by the chief judge."
Commenting on a request last week by Sukma's counsel Karpal Singh for him to step down as he was also handling Sukma's appeal against a sodomy conviction, the judge said: "There was no application to disqualify me yet."
"No judge craves to hear this case, or any case for that matter. But equally, no judge would run away from hearing the case."
Abdul Wahab said the gag order followed Karpal's comments published in a local daily last week that the defence would seek to have him removed if he proceeded to hear the case.
He criticised Karpal for not raising the matter with him first, saying it was an "act of thoughtlessness and gross disrespect to the court.
"Such an act, making use of the press, by counsel of much experience may be seen as ... an act calculated to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice."
During the hearing Anwar and Sukma sat together in the dock. They earlier chatted with family members including Anwar's parents, his wife Azizah and two of their six children.
Anwar was later heard commenting about the judge's ruling to his lawyer but it was not legally clear if the remarks were banned under the gag order.
The charge against Anwar alleges he committed "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" with Azizan Abu Bakar, his wife's former driver, in 1992.
Sukma, 37, faces a sodomy charge and an additional charge of "abetting Anwar in sodomising" Azizan, a key prosecution witness in Anwar's corrruption trial.
During the trial Azizan testified that he was repeatedly forced to have sex with Anwar in luxury hotels, although at one stage he appeared to agree with a defence assertion that the allegations were false.
The defence was unable to call witnesses to counter Azizan's testimomy after the court ruled that sexual allegations were irrelevant to the corruption charges, which alleged that Anwar abused his position to cover up the allegations.
Sukma and Pakistani biologist Munawar Ahmad Anees were convicted of having sex with Anwar and both sentenced to six months in jail on September 19 last year, a day before Anwar was arrested.
Both have appealed their conviction, although Munawar has since fled Malaysia with his Algerian wife and their two French-born children.
In addition to the sodomy trial, Anwar still faces another corruption charge and four additional counts of sodomy, a criminal offence in Malaysia carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail plus whipping.