The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today postponed the perjury trial of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's Indonesian adopted brother Sukma Dermawan Sasmitaat Madja to May next year.

Judge Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah fixed May 22 to 25 to continue the hearing after both the prosecution and defence applied for a postponement.

Counsel for Sukma, 39, Gobind Singh Deo, told the court his morning that he would be writing to the Attorney-General's Chambers today to seek a revision of the charge against his client.

He also said that the issues to be raised in the perjury trial were similar to the ones to be argued later before the Court of Appeal where Sukma has filed an appeal against his conviction of sodomy.

Deputy public prosecutor Noreen Badaruddin, meanwhile, told the court that the AG's Chambers was in the midst of moving its office to Putrajaya.

Ill-treated

In September 1998, Sukma pleaded guilty to having been sodomised by Anwar and was sentenced to six months in prison. He served the jail sentence. However, he later retracted his confession stating that he was severely ill-treated and coerced into giving false statements.

He was subsequently charged with giving false evidence in an affidavit affirmed by him on Aug 10, 1998.

Sukma was also found guilty on Aug 8 this year of sodomising Anwar's wife's former driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, and abetting Anwar to sodomise Azizan.

He was sentenced to six years in jail and two strokes of rotan by the High Court on each charge. The jail sentences are to run concurrently and Sukma is currently out on bail pending his appeal to the Court of Appeal.