(AFP) Last minute pleas were made today for the Attorney General's Chambers to drop sedition charges against lawyer Karpal Singh over remarks he made in court while defending former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The appeals came from rights group Amnesty International and the opposition DAP ahead of the scheduled opening of the trial of Karpal tomorrow.

The charge against the lawyer arose from an allegation he made during Anwar's trial for sodomy of a possible high-level plot to murder his client.

"The prosecution of Karpal Singh has serious implications for the independence of lawyers in Malaysia and their ability to carry out their duties free of fear of intimidation," Amnesty said in a statement.

"The charges further undermine the already shaky public confidence in the rule of law and the administration of justice."

A number of international observers are due to attend the trial, which has been scheduled for October 16-31. If convicted, Karpal faces a sentence of up to three years in jail.

'No precedent'

The lawyer, who is also deputy chairman of the DAP, was charged in January last year after telling the court that traces of arsenic had been found in Anwar's blood and he suspected that "people in high places" may have been trying to poison him.

The government ridiculed the poisoning claim. An independent medical inquiry later found Anwar was not suffering from acute arsenic poisoning at the time its tests were conducted.

Karpal, who is on bail, has said that there is no precedent in the Commonwealth for such a charge "for the simple reason that all the time there is immunity as far as lawyers are concerned in the discharge of their duties in court".

Anwar, who was sacked and detained in September 1998, was convicted in April 1999 of abuse of power and jailed for six years. In August last year he was separately convicted of sodomy and jailed for another nine years.

Anwar says he was framed to remove a political threat to veteran Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad - an allegation denied by the government.