Former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has sought to amend his statement of claim in an earlier suit he filed against the government to set aside his conviction and sentence on the grounds that the prosecution had relied on fabricated evidence.

It is understood that the amendment would include recent revelation by whistleblower website Sarawak Report that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had purportedly paid senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah RM9.5 million when leading the prosecution team at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

Anwar’s lawyer Melissa Sasidaran told reporters of the proposed amendment when the matter came up for case management before deputy registrar Ery Shariman Nor Aripin.

The government was represented by senior federal counsel Azmi Mashud.

Ery Shahriman has fixed another case management date for the matter on Aug 4.

Anwar, 69, who was jailed for five years in 2015 for Sodomy II, filed his application on April 17, naming the government as the defendant.

Anwar, in his statement of claim, said the government relied on fabricated evidence, in the form of a DNA sample, which he claimed was used to support evidence from Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

He further suggested that the government had the intention to injure him by placing Saiful as a truthful witness and that the evidence against him was perjured.

Anwar further contended that the government, through its agents, Saiful and other individuals known to the government, had acted concertedly to place Saiful as a truthful complainant and produced him (Saiful) in the trial and relied on his false testimony to injure him and his reputation.

It was also reported that the government has also filed a striking-out application, citing the lack of reasonable cause of action and failure to plead justification.

It further argued that Anwar's application was frivolous, vexatious, an abuse of the court process, bordered on sedition and is unconstitutional.

Besides this case, the PKR de facto leader had also filed another application last month to set aside his conviction and sentence in light of the allegation against Najib and Shafee.