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Anwar's trial: key evidence missing

KUALA LUMPUR: Defence lawyers for jailed former Malaysian finance minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday they had misplaced his passport, a crucial piece of evidence in establishing an alibi in his sex trial.

The passport detailing Anwar's trips abroad in 1993 showed he was mostly overseas when he allegedly sodomised his family's ex-driver in Kuala Lumpur between January and March that year, the defence said.

But the document, which was to have been submitted to the capital's High Court on Wednesday, has been lost after passing among several lawyers in the defence team, Anwar's lead counsel Christopher Fernando said.

"I'm sorry we don't have the passport, my Lord, but we've copies of its pages," Fernando told High Court Judge Arifin Jaka on the 75th day of the landmark trial.

Arifin appeared ready to accept the copies until the prosecution objected.

"My Lord, the law is very clear on this," chief prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail said. "The law requires that only original documents are submitted."

The judge, already irritated by a steady stream of disruptions to the trial, bellowed: "Where is the original passport? Where did these copies come from? They did not come from the heaven."

When the defence could not answer, Arifin retired to his chambers for 20 minutes, the second time in the day, so the passport could be located.

When the time had expired, the judge left and was seen from a window in the courtroom boarding his limousine. A court official later announced that the trial had been adjourned to Thursday.

"There are so many documents in this case," one of the seven defence lawyers in the case told reporters after the adjournment. "The passport could be anywhere. We'll find it."

ALIBI TO START FROM ARRIVAL OF BED

Lead counsel Fernando told the court the defence intended to detail Anwar's movements from February 11, 1993 -- the day after furniture movers brought a bed into the apartment where the ex-minister had allegedly committed sodomy.-Reuters