A High Court judge in Kuala Lumpur today recused himself from hearing Anwar Ibrahim's application to set aside his conviction for Sodomy II.

Judicial Commissioner Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, who was deputy home minister in former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's cabinet, decided to recuse himself on his own accord, said Anwar’s lawyers N Surendran and Latheefa Koya. Both of them had met Justice Wan Ahmad in chambers earlier.

In his brief grounds for recusal, the judge said he had been a member of the administration at the time, and that in anticipation of questions posed in Parliament, he was briefed by the Bukit Aman director of investigations on July 2008 on the Sodomy II case...