KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian high court judge on Thursday set January 9, a date earlier than expected to deliver the verdict on the sodomy trial of the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim after the defense and prosecutors wrapped up their arguments.

"I am very disappointed because the date of the verdict is much earlier than expected," Anwar said at the court lobby after the proceeding.

"The charged should not have been there, defense should not have been called and now that we have gone through the process, I must get acquitted based on the facts of the law," he added.

Anwar, aged 64, is charged with sodomizing his 26-year-old former aide, Mohammad Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a condominium unit in Kuala Lumpur in June 2008.

He pleaded not guilty.

Sodomy is a crime in the Muslim-majority country and if convicted, Anwar would be sentenced to behind bars for 20 years.

The defense lawyers questioned the evidence and the credibility of the doctors who conducted the tests to prove the sodomy.

Anwar's lead defense lawyer, Karpal Singh said Mohammad Saiful' s conduct was inconsistent with someone who had been violated after the alleged sodomy, asking "why didn't Saiful directly go to the police station."

During the hearing earlier this week, the prosecutors had told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that Anwar's defense was "mere denial", which the leading defense lawyer Karpal Singh described as "a long way far from the truth".

However, Mohd Yusof Zainal Abidin, who heads the prosecution team, said that the doctors were all expert in their fields.

This was not the first time 64-year-old Anwar was charged with sodomy.

In 1998, he was dismissed as a deputy prime minister and convicted for sodomy and corruption.

He was released in September 2004 and resumed his political career as an opposition leader, leading the opposition parties to hold five states in Malaysia's 2008 election.

The opposition believed the second sodomy charge against Anwar was a ploy by the government to destroy them ahead of a national poll widely speculated to be called mid 2012.

"In 1999, I was in jail and we increased our support among the Malays," Anwar said at the court lobby.

"If they consider this a political option to weaken the result of the opposition, I am convinced that after the 9th, the opposition will grow even stronger whether Anwar is outside or inside the jail," he added.

Prime minister Najib Razak denied the allegations.