Malaysia's Anwar to be charged over protest

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be charged over an April protest demanding fair elections, his lawyer said yesterday, 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 today 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.
The demonstration turned violent when protesters breached a barricade set up around the city's central Independence Square, which authorities had ruled was off limits for the rally, prompting police to fire tear gas and water cannon.