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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
To the great surprise of many of his followers, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was found not guilty of the sodomy charge brought against him by a former aide.
High Court judge Zabidin Mohamad Diah declared him innocent early on Monday morning, while huge crowds gathered outside the building in support of the former deputy prime minister. The DNA samples presented by the prosecution to prove Mr Anwar's guilt, he decided, were compromised.
The unexpected verdict may not prove that the judiciary is free of the executive, but it does show that the executive is not all-powerful.
This is also the second time Mr Anwar has been acquitted on such a charge. After being sacked as the country's second most powerful person by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed back in September 1998, he was jailed for misuse of power for six years. Just when a consecutive nine-year jail sentence for sodomy was to be served, the Federal Court overturned the decision in 2004.
After that Mr Anwar's return to the thick of politics was spectacular. He managed to sew together an electoral agreement in 2008 between his Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and the Islamist Parti Agama SeMalaysia and the Democratic Action Party.
Not only did this lead to historical victories when the three parties won five of 13 states plus the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, it also paved the way for Mr Anwar to regain his parliamentary seat.
New Generation
Although Monday's verdict is being used by the government to rebut opposition claims that the country's judiciary is strongly compromised by state intervention, the advantage gained from this will not be significant, given many other examples of bad governance.
But the acquittal is a strong gust of wind in the sail of the opposition coalition, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). While a guilty verdict would have provided the PR with powerful arguments about deteriorating governance, Mr Anwar being free to campaign is of much greater benefit to its chances of winning federal power.
He is a formidable speaker, as was obvious during the last general election in March 2008 when many Malays swung to support him late in the campaign. Without that shift, the opposition would not have come close to making the impressive gains that they did.
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