KUALA LUMPUR: A lawyer for Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sedition yesterday for comments alleging that his client’s controversial conviction on an abuse charge was politically motivated.
The charge against N Surendran, also an opposition parliamentarian and vice-president of Anwar’s political party, was immediately denounced by rights groups as a further betrayal of the government’s vow to scrap the tough sedition law.
Prime Minister Najib Razak made the pledge in 2012 as part of broader election promises to relax his government’s authoritarian ways.
But his government continues to use the law regularly, typically against government critics who call it a campaign to stifle dissent.
Surendran pleaded not guilty.
The charge relates to comments he made in April criticising Anwar’s conviction a month earlier, Surendran’s lawyer Latheefa Koya said.
Anwar was convicted in March of abusing a young former male political aide and sentenced to five years in jail. He denies the charge and is free on appeal.
Anwar accuses the government of manipulating the courts in a long-term conspiracy to blacken his name and halt the growing momentum of the opposition alliance he leads.
AFP
