IPU concern over Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal hearing process

IPU is monitoring the trial of Malaysian MP, Anwar Ibrahim © IPU

IPU is deeply concerned by the rushed process of the appeal hearing involving Malaysian opposition MP and leader Anwar Ibrahim that ended with a five-year jail sentence on sodomy charges.

The sentence will now prevent him from standing in a key by-election on 23 March in Selangor, which could have led him to becoming Chief Minister of Malaysia’s richest state.

The defence had requested for a delay to the hearing until the end of next week to allow lawyer Karpal Singh to work on other cases involving the death penalty, but this request had been denied. After the sentencing on 7 March, the defence was also only given one hour to prepare its case for a lower sentence.

Anwar will remain free on bail while he appeals against the guilty verdict.

This is the second time Anwar has been given a jail sentence on sodomy charges. He spent six years in jail until his release in 2004.  Four years later, he was also charged under a colonial era law (1938) that criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and that according to the UN violates the rights to privacy and non-discrimination.

A High Court cleared him of the charges in 2012 citing lack of evidence, but the government appealed the acquittal.

IPU had been observing the two-day appeal hearing in Kuala Lumpur.

The Organization is equally concerned about Karpal Singh’s own situation. As well as leading Anwar Ibrahim’s defence, he is an opposition MP. On 11 March, he is due to be sentenced following a conviction earlier this month for making seditious comments against a Malaysian sultan in 2009.

Karpal faces losing his parliamentary mandate if he is fined more than 2,000 ringgit (615 USD) or sentenced to a jail term exceeding one year and subsequently loses any appeals lodged.

The IPU trial observation report will be presented to IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians during its upcoming 130th Assembly in Geneva (16-20 March). The Committee has also asked for a hearing with the delegation from the Malaysian parliament.

There is genuine concern that both of the two leading opposition figures in Malaysia could be banned from political life.

.