Word: trials
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Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to bring confessed 9/11 ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or KSM, to trial in a lower-Manhattan federal court has turned into a political nightmare for the Obama Administration. Republicans are capitalizing on broad popular opposition to allowing terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo to have their day in civilian courts, painting Democrats as soft on al-Qaeda. Democratic lawmakers are scrambling to distance themselves from the issue, and the Administration has been forced to change its plans...
...Whatever the word on the street in the Malaysian capital may be, the government denies any political motivation for the charges, saying Anwar committed a crime and must face criminal trial. Saiful, who was taken into protective police custody after he first made the allegation on June 26, 2008, has not been charged in the alleged act, and has written on his blog that he can't wait to confront Anwar in court. "I have waited for justice and hope to finally get it," he wrote in a recent posting...
...This is the third time that Anwar will face trial on criminal charges. In 1999, he was sentenced to prison for corruption, which was quickly followed by sodomy charges in 2000, of which he was also found guilty but later acquitted in 2004. Some of the key players in that case figure again in the current trial, which started on Tuesday with preliminary arguments after a delay of nearly 16 months. The 63-year-old politician will once again face Gani Patail, the lawyer who prosecuted him in 1998 and is now Attorney General, as well as Musa Hassan...
...though he is no stranger to scandal, this trial, many say, may well be terminal for Anwar's ambition to become Prime Minister, derailing his sterling comeback and damaging the chances of the multiethnic, broadly secular Pakatan Rakyat coalition he leads. "In short, this is a make-or-break event for Anwar," political scientist Sivamurugan Pandyan tells TIME. "Everything is at stake ... his ambitions to become Prime Minister, his political career, the future of his Pakatan Rakyat. It's over for Anwar if he is found guilty and jailed even a few years...
...most counts, Malaysia, too, goes on trial on Tuesday. The judiciary, which was showing some independence in recent years, has come under attack again for bias and for pandering to political masters. Neither the Attorney General nor the police are widely seen as independent or impartial institutions, and opposition lawmakers constantly accuse them of selective persecution. Ramon Navaratnam, former president of Transparency International, says most Malaysians are against the trial and against charging Anwar with sodomy. "The public perception is that the trial is politically motivated," Navaratnam tells TIME. "Most people think this trial is unnecessary and it is selective...