Author who helped trigger Anwar's sacking dies in Malaysian hospital

Author who helped trigger Anwar's sacking dies in Malaysian hospital

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (AFP) - The author of a book which helped trigger the 1998 sacking of Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim died Monday of diabetes, the official Bernama news agency said.

Bernama said Khalid Jafri, 65, would be buried Tuesday in the town of Port Dickson. He leaves a wife and four children.Khalid, the author of "50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be PM", had been sentenced in July to one year in jail for accusing Anwar of sodomy, corruption and an extra-marital affair that resulted in an illegitimate daughter.

Khalid was free on bail pending an appeal. However, early this month he was admitted to hospital for treatment for diabetes. His right leg was amputated and he was put on a life support machine. On August 18 2005, a court awarded Anwar 4.5 million ringgit (1.2 million dollars) in damages over the book.

"The defendants' main purpose in publishing the book was to destroy the plaintiff's reputation and political career," said High Court judge Mohamad Hishamudin Mohamad Yunus in a strongly-worded decision. Khalid's wife Rozihan was named as the second defendant in the libel case, in her role as publisher of the book.

The judge noted that the book was distributed to delegates at the general assembly of the ruling United Malays National Organisation in May 1998.Anwar, heir apparent to then-premier Mahathir Mohamad, was sacked in September 1998 and subsequently convicted on corruption and sodomy charges which he said were engineered to prevent him challenging Mahathir for the leadership.

He was released from jail in September last year after the sodomy charges were overturned.