KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) - The trial of Anwar Ibrahim ended on Thursday after five months of legal battle that shook the nation's political foundations and provoked international concern.
High Court Judge Augustine Paul said he would pronounce his verdict on April 14.
Unbowed after six months in detention--for he was denied bail--Anwar stood by his argument that he was sacked and arrested as part of a plot by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's associates to prevent him from becoming prime minister and exposing corruption and cronyism.
"I still maintain there is a political conspiracy involving Dr Mahathir and his close associates to politically assassinate me,'' Anwar told reporters in the High Court after the trial ended on its 77th day, Malaysia's longest criminal trial.
The judge has barred Anwar's defense team from arguing that there was a political conspiracy.
Judge Paul said he would not be able to rule by April 6, the date he originally set for the verdict in a trial that has attracted strong international attention as a test of Malaysia's political and judicial systems.
As Malaysia has no jury system, Paul alone will rule on the four corruption charges at issue. The charges allege Anwar abused his power in 1997 by directing police to obtain retractions from two people who had accused him of sex crimes. The judge has ruled that the truth or falsity of the sex allegations was not relevant.
"I'm realistic enough to accept the eventuality,'' Anwar told reporters.
"My concern has already been expressed in the application to disqualify the judge, which was dismissed without going into the merit of the application, notwithstanding the verdict.''
Paul last week rejected Anwar's request that the judge, who joined the High Court bench last year, disqualify himself from the case on the grounds that he was partial.
Both the defence and prosecution closed their cases on Thursday after five months of legal arguments in the trial, which has divided Malaysia and fanned political differences ahead of elections due by April 2000.
"This honorable court should find the accused guilty of the four charges as amended and to convict him accordingly,'' government prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail told the court.
"There is no case against Datuk Seri Anwar,'' defense lawyer Gurbachan Singh said afterward. "The crux of our submission is that the prosecution has failed to prove its case.''
Another defence lawyer, Sulaiman Abdullah, contended that evidence by two senior Special Branch police officers was aimed at putting the blame on Anwar to shield their own mistakes.
"They are in a peculiar position to concoct possible false evidence against Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. They are wrongdoers whose evidence must be strictly scrutinized," he added.
The judge earlier rebuked a defence lawyer for his combative style. "You must respect the chair even if you don't like the man sitting on the bench,'' he said.
Mahathir dismissed Anwar last September after tension between the two political leaders reached breaking point. Anwar refused to resign as deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Mahathir sacked him.
After thousands of people shouting "reformasi'' (reform) took to the streets of the capital, Mahathir accused his erstwhile deputy of trying to foment Indonesia-style riots to force him to step down after 17 years in power.
Hooded police burst into Anwar's suburban home in late September and arrested him after tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of the capital.