A defence witness in the sodomy trial of sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim today said that his sister was paid to fabricate sexual allegations against Anwar.

Mohd Azmin Ali, Anwar's ex-private secretary, told the High Court that star prosecution witness, Ummi hafilda Ali, received money to slander his former boss.

"As a brother, I advised her to stay away from this conspiracy. She told me she could not because she had committed herself and some money had already been paid."

He also implied that Ummi is not the person she portrays herself to be and was disowned by her father in late 1998 "for running away with a married man overseas."

Ummi, who made court appearances during Anwar's corruption trial in designer attire and matching accessories, has told the press she is still a virgin. She, together with former driver of Anwar's wife, Azizan Abu Bakar, wrote letters to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad alleging the jailed leader of sexual misconduct.

They later retracted their allegations and said they wrote the letters under coercion and "mere suspicion".

Azmin told judge Arifin Jaka the letters were not written by Ummi. "Ummi confided she did not write the letters."

Defence lawyers have always argued that the letters were written by Anwar's political enemies to end his political career. They contended that Azizan and Ummi were lured into the political conspiracy through promises of huge monetary gains.

The trial resumes on Monday where Azmin will continue his testimony. Following that, Anwar's lawyers are expected to submit on the affidavit filed by Anwar detailing the relevance of Mahathir's evidence in court before moving on to the application filed by Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin to set aside the subpoena served on him to appear in court.

Deputy Education Minister and Mahathir's former political secretary Aziz Shamsuddin has notified, through his counsel, that he will take the witness stand when called by the defence.

Megat Junid, former domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, is still waiting to be called as a witness.

He, on March 27, filed a sworn statement stating Anwar is innocent of the sexual charges and alleged Aziz had become not "friendly" with the jailed former DPM.

Megat, however, made changes to his statement on Tuesday. According to him, it now states that he believed Anwar was innocent until Sept 1, 1998, the day before Anwar was sacked by Mahathir.

Anwar, following his shock dismissal from office, is serving a six-year jail term for corruption and stands trial for a separate charge of sodomy and sexual misconduct.

He is charged with forcing sex on ex-driver Azizan Abu Bakar with the aid of adopted brother Sukma Dermawan Sasmitaat Madja.

Anwar has repeatedly denied all charges and says they were trumped up to end his political career.