Anwar wants sodomy trial judge removed

The Malaysian opposition leader's sodomy trial was temporarily halted today after he called for the removal of the judge over allegations that he may be biased.

Anwar Ibrahim is accused of sodomising a former male aide in 2008 in a case that the opposition leader claims is part of a government plot to undermine his alliance.

Government authorities have denied any conspiracy.

Anwar said he was dissatisfied that the judge took no action against a newspaper owned by the ruling party that published a headline and photograph about the trial last week that Anwar's lawyers claimed were misleading and tantamount to contempt of court.

High Court Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah's decision raised "an element of real danger of bias," Anwar said in an application filed by his attorneys.

"There has been a departure from the standard of even-handed justice which the law requires."

The judge is scheduled to hear the application and decide whether to step down from the case tomorrow.

However, Anwar's application appeared unlikely to succeed because Mohamad Zabidin has previously defended his decision not to cite the newspaper for contempt, saying Anwar's lawyers should instead file a police complaint against the daily if they believed its coverage was malicious.

Anwar is accused of sodomising 24-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a private condominium on June 26, 2008.

Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

A sentence of at least one year would bar Anwar, 62, from politics for five years from the date of his release. The trial began last week with testimony from Saiful, who claimed that Anwar asked him for sex when they met at a condominium to discuss Anwar's work schedule.

However, most of the details of the alleged incident were not made public because Anwar's lawyers successfully called for that part of Saiful's testimony to be recorded in court without public observers because of its explicit nature.