Anwar has pleaded not guilty to the sodomy charges, saying they were concocted as part of a political conspiracy. -- PHOTO: AFP
KUALA LUMPUR - PROSECUTORS in Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial said on Wednesday that traces of his semen were found in medical tests on the young man making the allegations.
'The prosecution will also bring specimens of semen from Saiful Bukhari Azlan's anus which is verified by the chemistry department as belonging to the accused,' deputy public prosecutor Mohamed Yusof Zainal Abiden said.
'The prosecution will then prove (guilt) beyond reasonable doubt through the testimony of Saiful Bukhari Azlan and forensic evidence from doctors and chemists alongside circumstantial evidence and documentary evidence.'
Anwar, the former deputy prime minister, pleaded not guilty to the sodomy charges, saying they were concocted as part of a political conspiracy. 'It is a malicious allegation. It is a frivolous charge. It is trumped up by political masters using the prosecution for that purpose,' Anwar said as the hearing opened.
The trial started in the Kuala Lumpur High Court after Anwar's lawyers exhausted efforts to put the proceedings on hold because of unresolved technicalities, including their requests for advance access to the prosecution's medical evidence in the case.
Anwar is accused of sodomising 24-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a former election worker and aide, on June 26, 2008 at a private condominium. Saiful lodged a police complaint two days later. -- AFP, AP
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