JIMIN LAI—AFP / GETTY IMAGES

VICTORY: Anwar is hoisted by his supporters outside the court after it rules in his favor

Time for Healing
	In a stunning decision, Malaysia's highest court allows Anwar Ibrahim to go free. Can he be a political force again?
	By Simon Elegant | Kuala Lumpur

Posted Monday, September 6, 2004; 20:00 HKT
The crowd of some 500 people who had gathered outside the court in the federal capital Putrajaya knew it was their hero's last chance for freedom. If this appeal was rejected, Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister, would have to serve out his nine-year sentence for a sodomy conviction and be forced to stay in jail until at least 2009. Xavier Jayakumar, a 50-year-old dentist and opposition-party member, had attended every one of more than a dozen such appeals and hearings, all of which had been dismissed. Having been disappointed so many times, he, like many in the crowd, was skeptical of the rumors that Anwar would finally be released on the very day—Sept. 2—on which he had been sacked six years ago.

Then, at 11:04 a.m., Anwar aide Mohamad Ezam Mohamad Nor, cell phone in hand, a broad smile on his face, climbed onto the topmost step leading to the courtroom. He had just received a text message from inside, he told the crowd, declaring: "I'm very happy to announce that our battle to free Anwar is successful." Ezam continued speaking, but his voice was drowned out by cheers and screams. People hugged one another. Many, like Jayakumar, were openly weeping. "It's unbelievable," Jayakumar said, repeatedly embracing his daughter, who had accompanied her father to each failed previous hearing. "I can't believe they've really done it."

Inside the courtroom, Anwar at first showed no emotion when Judge Abdul Hamid Mohamad of the three-man Federal Court, Malaysia's highest judicial body, read out the words that would make him a free man. Only when the judge was done with the verdict—the crux of which was that the key witness against Anwar on the sodomy charge was not credible—and when the roar of the crowd outside could be heard did Anwar smile and raise his hand. "Your honors," Anwar told the judges, who had acquitted him 2-1, "thank you. May God bless you." As the news began to filter out, cars honked their horns. Two newspapers produced special editions devoted entirely to the release. Because a Chinese-language broadsheet was the first off the presses, the paper was snapped up by many ethnic Malays, who could be seen standing on street corners, unable to read the characters but admiring the huge color photographs of Anwar emerging from the courtroom. Talking to TIME later, Anwar again expressed his gratitude for the upholding of his appeal, but this time he thanked not the judges but Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's Prime Minister. "Knowing the way the institutions have been controlled by the executive," he said, "I don't think a release would have been possible unless the Prime Minister had made it clear he had no intention of interfering [with the judiciary]."

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