Anwar moves to disqualify sodomy trial judge

The trial, which Anwar says is a plot to end his political career, began last week with graphic testimony from 24-year-old former aide, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who accuses Anwar of sodomizing him.

Defense lawyers objected Friday when Utusan Malaysia, a Malay-language daily linked to the government, ran photographs of the court's closed-door visit to the apartment where the sexual encounter allegedly took place.

Judge, Mohamad Zabidin Diah, refused a request to admonish the daily over the pictures, as well as an earlier headline that said “Not willing to be sodomized again,” which the defense said suggested they had sex more than once.

Anwar, who was jailed on separate sodomy and corruption charges a decade ago in a case widely seen as politically motivated, said in a statement to the High Court there was a “real danger of bias” on the part of the judge.

“The local media has condemned me as they did in 1998 without (giving me a) chance to listen to my reply,” the 62-year-old opposition leader told reporters. “Clearly it's a political trial.”

The judge adjourned the trial until today, when he will hear the application to remove him from the proceedings.

However, the defense has lost several earlier legal maneuvers including a bid to strike out the case, and to force the prosecution to release evidence including medical reports and closed-circuit TV footage.

Anwar has said that the charges, which carry a penalty of 20 years imprisonment, are an attempt to end his political career and neutralize the threat he poses to the Barisan Nasional coalition government.

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