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Anwar's trial to resume with lawyer also facing charge

KUALA LUMPUR: The sensational sodomy trial of Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim resumes on Tuesday with both the former deputy premier and one of his leading lawyers under separate threats of a jail term.

In an unprecedented situation, lawyer Karpal Singh has been charged with sedition over remarks he made in the trial last September, alleging a possible plot to poison his client with arsenic while in jail.

Karpal, who denies sedition and is free on bail, faces a separate trial in the High Court at a date to be fixed. If convicted he could be fined or jailed for up to three years.

Karpal, also deputy chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), was one of five opposition figures arrested earlier this month Ñ and bailed pending trial Ñ in a move which attracted widespread criticism.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang has said Malaysia was becoming "an international pariah" over Karpal's case. He said it violated United Nation's principles on lawyers, which confer immunity for statements made in court in good faith.

The government ridiculed the poisoning claim and an independent medical inquiry later found Anwar was not suffering from acute arsenic poisoning at the time its tests were conducted.

Karpal said he would raise his sedition arrest with Arifin Jaka, the judge in Anwar's trial. "I have to tell him this is the position, that I am caught up in this predicament," he said.

"This is something that has never happened before. I will ask the judge to give me some guidelines."

Anwar's trial Ñ his second since he was sacked by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as deputy premier and finance minister on September 2, 1998 Ñ is likely to make headlines in other respects also.

His supporters said last week they would press on with plans for a demonstration outside court on Tuesday despite government warnings. AFP