Anwar Ibrahim, longtime opposition leader in Malaysia, fled to the Turkish Embassy yesterday following revelations he is being investigated for having sex with his male aide, a charge that ruined his career once before.
According to CNN:
Anwar, a charismatic politician, was once part of the ruling
establishment, rising to the post of deputy prime minister and finance
minister in then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government in the 1990s.
But it all unraveled in 1998 when he was accused of sodomizing his
driver and abusing his power to cover up the deed. Mahathir fired him
from the government and had him jailed. Anwar was subsequently
convicted on both charges but Malaysia's highest court overturned the
sodomy conviction and freed him in 2004.
Anwar insists he was
framed to prevent him from challenging Mahathir for power. After a
decade in political oblivion, Anwar revived his career with this year's
electoral success.
Anwar is eligible to run for Prime Minister again soon, although his life may be in danger, which is why he a) claims to have to hide at the Turkish Assembly and b) why these accusations are appearing now.
In his blog statement, Anwar said he recently obtained evidence that
the national police chief, Musa Hassan, and the attorney general, Abdul
Gani Patail, fabricated evidence against him in 1998.
"These actions are being repeated today to undermine the forces of
reform and renewal which were unleashed in the March 2008 elections,"
he said. In an earlier statement, he said the new accusation was
engineered by "interested parties" to prevent him from exposing Musa
and Abdul Gani.
In a country where sodomy is published by jail time, it's not likely to matter whether he was framed or not...
Via CNN.
