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Malaysia debates DNA bill with eye on Anwar case
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-18 16:11 Opposition lawmaker Tony Pua noted the bill was the first to be proposed in Parliament when it reconvened Monday after a monthlong break, raising questions about why it was "so important that it has to be rushed into Parliament at this time." "Are laws being changed just to ensure a successful upcoming prosecution of some prominent personality? Are goal posts being shifted against the natural course of justice?" Pua said. The sodomy accusation by Anwar's 23-year-old former aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, was a bombshell for Anwar's three-party opposition alliance, which won an unprecedented 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament in March elections. Anwar, 61, has rejected the accusation as a ploy to prevent him from carrying out his threat to engineer defections by government lawmakers to oust Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration by next month. Abdullah has denied any conspiracy. Abdullah said Saiful's accusations should not be taken lightly. "We must remember that he could be a victim," Abdullah was quoted as saying Sunday by the New Straits Times newspaper. "We tend to overlook small people like him who seek justice." Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, claims police also fabricated evidence against him in 1998 when he was charged with sodomizing his family driver. Malaysia's highest court overturned the sodomy conviction in 2004. |
