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Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim found guilty of sodomy

Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was found guilty of sodomy Tuesday and sentenced to nine years in prison, the climax of his two-year battle against what he has called a political conspiracy against him.

Anwar, who appeared calm, hugged his wife and one of his daughters after the verdict.

"I cannot blame him (Judge Ariffin Jaka), he is following orders," he said. "You have to be realistic."

Anwar, 52, says he is the victim of a political conspiracy masterminded by veteran Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

"I'm shocked. I can't believe it," said lead defence counsel Christopher Fernando.

Anwar and Sukma, 39, were convicted of sodomising Azizan Abu Bakar, a former Anwar family chauffeur, between Janaury and March 1993.

Sukma faced an additional charge of abetting Anwar in committing sodomy, seen as a serious crime in this mainly Muslim country.

Prosecutors had twice changed the year of the charge before settling on 1993.

Judge Arifin said Azizan had been cross-examined for 10 days "and he came out unscathed. There were some discrepancies but it was explained."

"There is no necessity for Azizan to lie. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming out with this conflict and telling the whole world he was sodomised."

Arifin said Azizan's evidence was corroborated by Sukma's confession of sodomy. Sukma had retracted that confession, which he says was forced out of him by police.

Arifin said Anwar's alibi defence "in my mind is incomplete and therefore fails."

Referring to Anwar's claims of conspiracy, Arifin said: "I am of the view that it is not an issue in this case and therefore irrelevant.

"For the above reasons I'm satisfied the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore find both accused guilty as charged."

Some 500 police, including riot squads and paramilitaries, were posted around the city centre court.

There were no reports of trouble but police arrested two people.

One of them was Tian Chua, a vice-president of the National Justice Party, founded by Anwar's wife.

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