An international organisation of lawmakers has declared that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's current sodomy trial is riddled with defects in one of the resolutions it had adopted.

The Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) passed has several resolutions on Anwar at the 122nd assembly in Bangkok yesterday.

Its union committee on human rights of parliamentarians unanimously decided to present its resolutions on the trial.

The assembly noted that the trial was a bid to wreck Anwar's political career.

Pakatan Rakyat representatives Hee Loy Sian (PKR-Petaling Jaya Selatan), Sim Tong Him (DAP-Kota Melaka) and Senator Mumtaz Md Nawi (PAS), had attended the assembly.

In a press statement, they said that the assembly believed that since the two medical reports concluded that there were no physical signs of penetration, charges should not have been pressed in the first place and should have been dismissed.

The assembly was also alarmed that the members of the prosecution team in Anwar's first sodomy trial, implicated in an evidence fabricating scandal, are still involved in his current trial.

"The main prosecutor at the time and now attorney-general, having been accused of having fabricated evidence against Anwar, is again involved in the present proceedings.

"Anwar's defence team has also been prevented from exercising its right to access prosecution evidence and hindered from preparing its defence," said the statement.

They also said that unless the defence team had equality of arms, an essential element of a fair trial, any judgment made by the court would be fundamentally flawed.

To send an observer

the charge against anwar ibrahim sodomy allegation trial 070808 The assembly, attended by lawmakers from 145 countries throughout the world, also requested the secretary-general to make necessary arrangements for a observer to be present at the coming hearings.

They have also requested the secretary-general to inform the Malaysian parliamentary authorities accordingly.

They have also requested the human rights committee to continue examining the case and report to its next session at the 123rd IPU Assembly expected to be in October.

Anwar's sodomy trial will resume on May 10 after he withdrew his appeal to have the presiding judge recuse himself from his trial in order to speed up the trial.