Anwar heads for court, again

[...] "The trial will be bad for Malaysia and seriously discredit Najib," said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert at Johns Hopkins University.

"He will be compared to Mahathir and be seen as a weaker version of an autocrat for having to resort to this sort of measure early on to weaken a challenger."

Anwar's marathon trials in the late 1990s lasted 14 months and saw witnesses change testimony, contradictory medical evidence and bizarre scenes, including a semen-stained mattress paraded in court and a witch doctor casting spells outside.

The new trial is scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Conviction or a trial that exposes the weaknesses of Malaysia's judiciary to international scrutiny once more may put Malaysia in a harsh light.

"One thing must be made clear, it is my opinion that what we are doing to Anwar Ibrahim is starkly similar to what is happening to (Myanmar's) Aung San Suu Kyi," former Bar Council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said in a recent lecture.

"I ask, show me the difference between the two. I ask, how can we condemn the latter and do the former." - + selanjutnya

Anwar heads for court, again