PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: The Federal Court set aside the conviction against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy in 2004 but this did not mean he did not commit the offence, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the appellate court had found evidence to confirm that Anwar and his adopted brother Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja were involved in homosexual activities, which the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

However, two judges had used the intricacies of the law to find Anwar not guilty, said Dr Mahathir.

"If we count, we will find that all the 10 judges who heard the case of Anwar sodomising Azizan (Abu Bakar, his former family driver) agreed that Anwar committed sodomy, although the two (judges) used technical reasons to not find him guilty," he said in his blog Che Det.

The former prime minister said Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail had earlier on said she did not believe in the judiciary in Malaysia.

"However, when Anwar was released on a basis which was hard for the general public to comprehend, she did not say that she did not have faith in the judiciary system," he said.

"What will she say then if in an Anwar trial, the judge finds that although he believes that Anwar sodomised (his former aide Mohd) Saiful (Bukhari Azlan), and yet finds him not guilty due to intricacies of the law?"

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