Anwar Ibrahim took the witness stand in the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning which is hearing his RM60 million defamation suit against senator S Nallakaruppan.

Once again, he faced lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who led the prosecution team in the Sodomy II case, for which Anwar is now serving a five-year prison sentence.

During cross examination, Shafee, who is representing Nallakaruppan, attempted to shine the spotlight on Anwar's character by raising the sodomy cases in 1998 and 2008.

Anwar's lawyer Latheefa Koya objected to the questions as it was not pleaded by Nallakaruppan in his statement of defence.

However, Justice Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab allowed the questions.

Anwar then agreed that he was convicted for abuse of power under Section 2(1) of the Emergency Ordinance in 1998 but was acquitted by the Federal Court of the sodomy II charge.

The plaintiff also agreed that his application to expunge former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad's judgment - which acquitted him but saw the judge commenting that the sodomy incident did happen - had failed.

"But Abdul Hamid is a known Perkasa member," the former opposition leader quipped.

As Shafee tried to raise the Sodomy II conviction, Latheefa objected again and this time Justice Mohd Zaki agreed that the matter should go on for further submission.

Justice Zaki pointed out that the defamatory incident happened in 2008, and should not be related to the conviction.

However, Shafee told the court that during cross-examination, lawyers are allowed to ask questions on the plaintiff's past, present and also after the said event.

However, Justice Zaki said parties should submit on the matter and fixed May 21 for submission and continued cross-examination.

'Taking money from Magnum corp'

Earlier, Anwar told the court that Nallakaruppan had defamed him during the Permatang Pauh by-election in 2008 by claiming that the former opposition leader took RM60 million from gaming firm Magnum Corporation.

Anwar, who contested in the by-election, said the statement was not only untrue but slanderous.

"It portrayed me as an immoral leader and not qualified to be a leader of this country.

"It gave a bad impression as the majority of the population in the country are Muslims and gambling is haram (forbidden) in the religion," he added.

The PKR de-facto leader was replying to questions from his lawyer Latheefa.

Anwar further showed that Nallakaruppan's remarks were published in Mingguan Malaysia and Sinar Harian on Aug 24, 2008.

He said Nallakaruppan was a former PKR member who quit the party after he (Nallakaruppan) failed to get support from him to be a party vice-president and for not being picked as a candidate to contest in the Ijok by-election.

After leaving the party, Anwar said Nallakaruppan continued to criticise him and PKR.