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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has taken refuge in the Turkish Embassy after denying an accusation of sodomy, saying he feared a government plot to assassinate him.

The sodomy accusations - made in a police complaint by a 23-year-old aide - revived memories of a similar accusation a decade ago that led to Anwar’s imprisonment and ouster as deputy prime
minister, even though a court later exonerated him.

Anwar accused the government Sunday of a conspiracy to thwart his rising political clout.

The startling weekend developments added to the turmoil in Malaysia’s politics since March 8 elections in which Anwar’s opposition coalition made unprecedented gains against the governing National Front coalition.

Anwar has since been vying to unseat the government, saying he is in a position to engineer enough defections from the Front.

In a statement posted on his blog, Anwar said the opposition’s political comeback has put his life in danger.

“I have been told that my assassination has not been ruled out as means to subvert the people’s will and bring an end to the transformational changes taking place in Malaysia,” Anwar wrote on his blog from the Turkish Embassy where was was holed up since early Sunday.

Anwar’s party said that he was not seeking political asylum but that the Turkish ambassador had offered him protection. Anwar is known to be a close friend of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Calling the sodomy accusation “a complete fabrication,” Anwar said he “remains (as) committed as ever before to continuing the struggle for a free and just Malaysia.”

Bakri Zinin, the federal police chief for criminal investigations, said a man filed a complaint Saturday saying Anwar had sodomized him in a condominium in an upscale Kuala Lumpur suburb on Thursday.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation and be fair to both sides,” Bakri told a news conference.

Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Anwar’s party identified the accuser as his assistant, saying he had disappeared Saturday. The aide’s whereabouts were unknown.

A charismatic politician, Anwar was once part of the ruling establishment, rising to the post of deputy prime minister and finance minister in then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s government in the 1990s.

But his career collapsed in 1998 when he was accused of sodomizing his driver and abusing his power to cover up the deed.

Mahathir fired him from the government and had him jailed. Anwar was subsequently convicted on both charges, but Malaysia’s highest court overturned the sodomy conviction and freed him in 2004.

Anwar insists he was framed to prevent him from challenging Mahathir for power.

Anwar did not run in the March 8 elections because his abuse-of-power conviction barred him from holding political office for five years. The ban ended in April, and Anwar has indicated he wants to re-enter Parliament through a by-election, which would make him eligible to become prime minister.

Anwar’s wife, Azizah Ismail, described the new sodomy accusation as an attempt at “political murder.”

At a news conference, she displayed a Blackberry showing a photograph of the accuser apparently with one of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak’s aides at Najib’s office.

Some blogs also carried pictures of the accuser with three government ministers at various events.

Anwar’s supporters say the photos indicate a possible conspiracy to frame Anwar.

But Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi insisted the government was not responsible for the accusation, saying there was no conspiracy “to cause (Anwar) trouble or harass him or raise such issues to undermine him.”

“It never crossed my mind at all” to frame Anwar, Abdullah said. “We don’t have any plan to do something to him (just) because he said he has made a political comeback.” (AP)

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