Malaysian Leader Kept in Jail for Sodomy

A sodomy conviction against the leader of Malaysia’s opposition party was upheld by the country’s top court Tuesday. Anwar Ibrahim’s final appeal of last year’s lower court ruling was rejected. Ibrahim accused the judges of being “partners in crime” with Malaysia’s governing party, which has a history of using authoritarian tactics to remain in control. “You chose to be on the dark side,” he told them. Ibrahim, 67, has already served six years in prison for a separate sodomy charge, but he successfully appealed it in 2004. While sodomy is punishable for heterosexual and homosexual couples in Malaysia by as much as 20 years in prison, it is rarely enforced in modern times.