PKR this week filed two petitions – one with the Malaysian Parliament and the other with the United Nations in its ongoing effort to free its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim from imprisonment following a sodomy conviction.

Both Anwar's legal team and international human rights lawyer Jared Genser filed the UN petition with its Working Group on Arbitary Detention on Sunday, to requesting it to investigate Anwar's detention, said R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) [photo] at Parliament's lobby today.

"We expect the case to be heard at the UN in September," he said.

Both the prosecutor and defence counsel in Anwar's Sodomy II are expected to be called then, he added.

According to the senior PKR leader, Genser was instrumental in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader who underwent 15 years of house arrested by the country's military junta.

"UN cannot force the Malaysian government to release Anwar but we can have them pronounce that Anwar's arrest was arbitrary […] this is indeed to name and shame," he said.

Meanwhile, Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) has filed in a petition with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Ali today, demanding that the House make a stand on Anwar's conviction, said Nurul Izzah Anwar (PKR-Pandan).

She said that the speaker has indicated he wanted wanted parliamentary reform so the petition would test the waters on how sincere he was.

"It's time to see if we can rise up to the benchmark," she added.