Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's high court on Tuesday rejected opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's appeal to throw out sodomy charges levelled against him. The court ruled that the trial against Anwar would proceed, and set the date for January 25.
Anwar, 61, was charged in August 2008 of allegedly sodomizing a 23-year-old former male aide. He has denied the charges, and claims the allegations were trumped up to frame him and undermine his three-party opposition alliance.
Anwar sought the dismissal on the grounds that an initial medical examination on the alleged victim showed no evidence of penetration. His lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.
"My request to throw out the malicious accusations against me has been rejected," Anwar wrote in his blog Tuesday.
He criticized the court's refusal to take the medical report as grounds to dismiss the charges, and suggested that the proceedings were part of a political conspiracy against him.
"Faced with such clear evidence such as these, the court has still chosen to side with the prosecutors," Anwar said.
If found guilty of sodomy, a crime in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, Anwar could face 20 years in prison.
It is the second time that Anwar has been accused of sodomy. In 1998, he was fired as deputy prime minister and charged with sodomizing a former family driver, and then using his position to cover up the act.
He was eventually freed in 2004 after spending six years in jail when his sodomy conviction was overturned by the Federal Court.
