Ensure 'due process' in new Anwar case, US urges M'sia

The United States urged Malaysia to ensure “due process” after Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was hit with criminal charges for his part in an election reform rally.

“We encourage the authorities in Malaysia to ensure that due process is protected and that any trial is conducted in a fair and transparent manner,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday.

“And we will continue to monitor the case,” she added.

Anwar and two party colleagues were charged with violating a controversial new law governing public gatherings and a court order that banned the April 28 rally from the centre of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

The charge comes just four months after Anwar was acquitted of sodomy in a long-running trial that the charismatic leader has said was engineered by the government of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to remove him as a political threat.

Asked if Washington had concerns that due process may not be followed and a trial may not be fair, Nuland noted that “we have had concerns in the past”.

- AFP