Malaysia's opposition leaders to be charged over illegal protest

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), May 21 (Xinhua-ANI): Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy in the People's Justice Party Azmin Ali received summons on Monday to answer charges at a court for breaching a restricted compound in a rally last month, an Anwar's representative said.

Both would be charged for violating a court order barring the public from assembly at the historic Independent Square in a mass rally with the size of about 50,000 demonstrators demanding a clean and fair election on April 28.

The representative told Xinhua the charges could have stemmed from a video that went viral on the internet depicting Anwar and Azmin exchanging gestures before protesters trampled through barricades to enter the Independent Square, where they had wanted to gather.

Police responded with teargas and water cannon and arrested 512 people.

More than 100 including two policemen and two journalists were hospitalized.

Anwar and Azmin are expected to appear at the Kuala Lumpur high court on Tuesday morning for the hearing.

The summons came after two cops pleaded not guilty last week to injuring a photojournalist at the protest.

April's protest was the second organized by electoral reform group Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) in less than a year against what they claimed to be the federal government's failure to address alleged widespread electoral fraud and delay in executing changes to the electoral roll. (Xinhua-ANI)