Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be charged over an April protest demanding fair elections, his lawyer said Monday, accusing the government of a fresh bid to remove Anwar from politics. The move comes just four months after Anwar was acquitted of sodomy in a long-running trial that the charismatic leader has said was engineered by the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak to remove him as a political threat. Anwar will be charged in a Kuala Lumpur court on Tuesday with violating a contentious new law on public assemblies and a court order restricting the April 28 rally, his lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah told AFP. “This is a fresh attempt to bar Anwar from participating in the elections. The sodomy allegations failed, and now this is a new attempt to disqualify him,” Sivarasa said. Tens of thousands of Malaysians hit the streets of the capital Kuala Lumpur for the rally organised by electoral-reform group Bersih 2.0, demanding changes to an election system they say is rigged in the ruling coalition’s favour.
