Prosecutors charged Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and two of his allies yesterday with breaking various laws during a massive street rally to demand electoral fairness.
The charges could distract Anwar from preparing for national elections that many speculate will be held by September.
The three men were charged in a Kuala Lumpur court with defying a court ban against assembling at a public square in Kuala Lumpur last month and inciting other demonstrators to breach a police barricade.
Photo: EPA
They pleaded not guilty and face a maximum jail sentence of six months, as well as fines totaling 12,000 ringgit (US$3,852), if convicted. The court scheduled a preliminary hearing on July 2 to determine further trial dates.
“It is clearly a politically motivated charge. Elections are around the corner,” Anwar said.
The Malaysian prime minister’s office rejected Anwar’s claims of a political plot, saying in a statement that the charges were based on police investigations. The office said that two policemen and other people were charged previously in connection with violence during the rally.
The charges are the first against Anwar after he was acquitted in January of sodomizing a male former aide. The government has denied Anwar’s claims that the sodomy trial was engineered to undercut an opposition alliance that made unprecedented inroads in 2008 elections.
Two others charged were Azmin Ali, the deputy president of Anwar’s opposition People’s Justice Party, and party youth official Baharul Hisham Shaharin.
They were among tens of thousands of Malaysians who joined a rally on April 28 calling for an overhaul in electoral policies. Police used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators, after some of them breached a barrier at a public square that had been declared off-limits.
Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said the charges against the opposition leaders “don’t inspire confidence that the Malaysian government is committed to protecting basic free expression rights.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and other officials have accused the opposition of trying to create chaos at the rally, which was organized by opposition-backed civic groups. Some people claimed Anwar and Azmin goaded peaceful demonstrators into charging at police.
If Anwar and Azmin are fined the maximum amount, they also risk losing their seats in parliament.
National polls are not due until next year, but speculation has been rife that Najib will dissolve parliament soon. Najib’s coalition, which has led Malaysia since 1957, has slightly less than a two-thirds parliamentary majority after it suffered its worst electoral performance ever in 2008.
The rally’s organizers had demanded the resignation of election commission officials, claiming they are biased.
Demonstrators also wanted a cleanup of voter registration lists allegedly tainted with fraudulent names and rules to ensure all parties get access to mainstream media.
Government officials insist the activists’ concerns are overblown. The election commission last week said it hopes to help ease the criticism by potentially securing voting rights for 1 million Malaysians living overseas and inviting international observers for the elections.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS