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KUALA LUMPUR : A former aide accusing Malaysia's opposition leader of sodomy told a court on Friday the politician offered him money before he went public with the charge.
Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 24, speaking on the third day of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's trial, said the 62-year-old angrily rejected his resignation a day after the two men had allegedly had illicit sex in June 2008.
"Anwar asked me to stay and made a counter-offer, offering to pay for my full-time education while continuing to work for him and getting pay," Saiful said after prosecutors presented new evidence, including internal swabs and a tube of lubricant said to have been used by the pair.
"At that point, I was afraid to object, so I agreed," said Saiful, who filed a police report and submitted himself to medical examinations after Anwar allegedly made the financial offer.
Prosecutors displayed the underwear that Saiful claimed to have worn when Anwar had sex with him in an apartment three months after landmark opposition gains in the March 2008 general elections.
Anwar, who was arrested in 1998 on sodomy and corruption charges but made a stunning comeback after being freed from prison in 2004, says the new charge, punishable by 20 years' jail, is an attempt to end his political career.
Saiful had testified at the opening of the trial on Wednesday that Anwar propositioned him for sex after inviting him to the apartment in an upscale Kuala Lumpur suburb to deliver a document.
He told the court on Friday he tendered his resignation as a party worker from the Anwar-led People's Alliance coalition the day after the incident, citing lack of personal discipline.
"However, the real reason was that I was not willing to be used again," said Saiful, who testified calmly wearing a dark suit.
"I was happy to work for Anwar. I saw him as a charismatic leader and he was my idol since (I was) small," he said.
Murmurs spread throughout the packed courtroom when Saiful described a pair of black trousers also shown as evidence by prosecutors as a "gift from Anwar".
Defence lawyers, prosecutors and the judge, along with Anwar and Saiful, visited the apartment for the second time.
Anwar has criticised the Barisan Nasional coalition government of using government-linked newspapers to conduct a trial by media.
"If this is the trend, then we are not going to have a fair trial," he told reporters on Friday, after the trial was adjourned until Monday.
Anwar, a married father-of-six, was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 during a power struggle with the then leader Mahathir Mohamad and convicted on sodomy and corruption charges.
In 2004, the sodomy conviction was overturned and he was released, allowing him to take over the leadership of a reinvigorated opposition. - AFP/ms
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