a. Bail

Augustine Paul denied Anwar bail after he claimed trial to all the charges on 5 October 1998. The prosecution objected to bail on the ground that there were allegations of tampering with witnesses by Anwar. No clear or concrete evidence was produced to the court of such tampering- it remained a mere allegation. However Augustine explained that his denial of bail was based on the prosecution allegation AND the fact that some of the charges against Anwar involved tampering with witnesses in the very facts alleged. Tlhe judge seemed to be completely overlooking the fact that the charges allege tampering by Anwar using his power in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister. He is now no more the Deputy Prime Minister -hence such alleged tampering in that manner could no longer arise! The denial of bail for these offerices is unprecedented. All previous accused charged under this particular Ordinance for corruption have been allowed bail. The denial of bail looks clearly politically motivated.

b. Access to lawyers

The judge then went on to make a number of rulings against the interest of the defence such as only allowing three out eight lawyers to visit Anwar in detention at any time. Only two designated lawyers would be allowed to speak to Anwar in court at any time. When the defence asked that 5 plainclothes policemen placed around Anwar in the dock stand at the back of the court, the judge said "he did not want to interfere with security matters".

c. Inadequate time for the preparation of the Defence

The High Court only allowed a trial date of less than one month from October 5, 1998. The date given by the Court was based on a date suggested by the Deputy Public Prosecutor. Despite a request by lawyers for Anwar for a trial date of two months from October 6, 1998, it was turned down by the Court, although the Court did rule, after repeated requests by the Anwar's lawyers, that if there was still inadequate time for preparation of the defence, the lawyers for Anwar could write to the Court for an extension of time. Malaysian courts generally allow criminal trial dates of 3 months or more to enable the accused's lawyers to prepare their defence. There was greater need for time in the Anwar case as he was in communicado from September 20, 1998 detention date.