High farce and small progress

THE trial of Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's opposition leader, has proceeded in farcical fits and starts since February. On August 2nd the judge adjourned hearings again, over a defence motion to scrap the whole thing. The case hinges on an accusation of sodomy made by a former male aide to Mr Anwar. The defence says the prosecution has been compromised, after allegations arose of a romantic affair between the accuser and a (female) junior prosecutor in the case. In 1998 Mr Anwar, then deputy prime minister, was tried for a similar offence and spent six years in jail, before his conviction was quashed. He calls this second trial a political conspiracy.

Such drama is largely absent from Malaysia's sharia courts, which operate in parallel with civil ones and deal mostly with family law for the Muslim majority, annulling marriages and adjudicating custody disputes. But they also dole out punishments for “moral offences”. Muslims caught drinking or philandering face fines or even caning.