Anwar expects to be jailed again

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has said he expects the country’s top court to dismiss his final appeal against a sodomy conviction next week and that he will be sent to prison for the second time in a decade.

Anwar was sentenced to five years in prison in March on charges of sodomising a male aide after the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal. The Federal Court will hear his appeal next Tuesday and Wednesday.

The United States and international 
human rights groups have called the legal moves against Anwar politically motivated.

“It’s a foregone conclusion that there will be a conviction, unless there is a miracle,” Anwar said late on Tuesday at a dinner with the foreign media.

“I am still optimistic. I haven’t lost hope, but I’m realistic to expect the worst. Mentally, I am prepared,” 
he added.

Anwar, 67, was accused of sodomising a male aide in 2008, but acquitted by the High Court in 2012. He has said the charges were trumped up to kill his political career.

He is seen as the most potent threat to Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, but has seen support eroding to Anwar’s three-party opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition.

BN secured its 13th straight election win last year, although it was also the narrowest victory for the coalition since independence.

Anwar was previously imprisoned for six years after being ousted as Deputy Prime Minister in 1998 on earlier charges of sodomising his former family driver and abusing his power. He was freed in 2004 after Malaysia’s top court quashed that sodomy conviction.

Anwar said he would not run away and seek political asylum abroad despite the frequent suggestions by many of his friends overseas. “Most scholars (abroad) urged me to remain behind as they cannot fathom … seeing me in prison. I said, no, it is a matter of conviction,” he said.

“It’s not that I enjoy prison. I dislike it immensely,” he added. “But I have no option. This is my homeland. I have vowed to fight for this country. I will continue my struggle.”

He said the sodomy appeal was not only about him, but innocents being wrongfully imprisoned. “If your father was sent to jail despite being innocent, would you defend such a decision? This is an issue which should be thought through.”

He said his imprisonment would be toughest on his family and that he had apologised to them profusely.

Anwar also said he could not predict if jailing him would spark massive street protests, as happened in 1998, but believed it would galvanise further support for the opposition. “I issue a caution to Prime Minister Najib. Don’t think you can transgress the law. Don’t think you are invincible. Even the strongest of dictators ... has limits,” he said.

Prosecutors are seeking a heavier jail sentence for Anwar. Sodomy, even consensual, is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. AGENCIES