INTERVIEW - Malaysia's Anwar "better prepared" for trial

By Razak Ahmad and David Chance

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim, facing trial next month on what he claims are politically motivated charges of sodomy, said the country's opposition will be able to survive without him in the event of his conviction.

The former deputy premier, whose sacking in 1998 on corruption and sodomy charges at the height of the Asian economic crisis led to massive street protests, said he was more prepared for his coming trial than the first time round.

"If their intention is to convict me by hook or by crook, then it’s going to be messy, I'm not going to take it hands down, and we are better prepared this time around," Anwar told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Sodomy is a criminal offence in Malaysia carrying a maximum 20-year prison term and a second conviction would effectively end the political career of the 61-year old who has the best chance of ousting the government that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years.

Anwar was released from prison in 2004 after Malaysia's top court set aside his sodomy conviction and nine year jail sentence, although the corruption sentence stood.

His trial, in which he is accused of sodomising his former aide comes amid a global economic crisis in which the economy of this export-oriented Southeast Asian country set to contract by up to 5 percent this year, according to the government.

Investment capital has fled Malaysia since the March 2008 elections in which the National Front government recorded its worst ever result, with official data showing that the capital and financial account showed an outflow of 123 billion Malaysian ringgit ($34.92 billion) in 2008.

Malaysia is also set to post its biggest budget deficit for 22 years this year at 7.6 percent of gross domestic product and as a result bond yields have climbed and stand 100 basis points wider than neighbouring Thailand .