News Digest

Malaysia’s Anwar alleges ‘conspiracy’ as he is sent to prison

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim alleged a “political conspiracy” as he was sent to jail Tuesday after his appeal against a sodomy conviction was rejected, likely spelling the end of his career. Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria dismissed Anwar’s challenge against last year’s conviction for sodomising a young male former aide, saying the court found “overwhelming evidence” of the crime. Arifin read his judgement out to a stunned courtroom packed with opposition figures, journalists and Anwar’s family and supporters, many of whom wept quietly. Anwar later took to the dock to launch a scathing attack on the Federal Court panel of justices, accusing them of collusion in a “political conspiracy” by Malaysia’s now 58-year-old ruling regime.

In bowing to the dictates of your political masters, you have become partners to the crime. You have chosen to be on the dark side. I will not be silenced! I will never surrender!

Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim shouting at the judges as they abruptly got up to leave

Government critics say the case is part of a long-running campaign to destroy Anwar, a former deputy premier who was ousted from the ruling party in the late 1990s and later helped unite a previously divided and hapless opposition into a formidable force. Now 67, Anwar might not emerge from prison until the age of 72 if he serves the full term. He is also stripped of his parliament seat and disqualified from running in the next elections, due by 2018. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has previously admitted meeting Anwar’s accuser, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008 just before the charges were filed, but he denies orchestrating the case. A statement by his office after the ruling insisted the judiciary was independent.