COMMENT | On Sept 2, 2004, less than a year after Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, affectionately known as Pak Lah, had succeeded Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim was freed after the Federal Court acquitted him of Mahathir-era sodomy charges.

He had served six years of a nine-year sentence, and having finished serving a corruption sentence earlier, he was eligible to stand in the next election, which had to be held by 2009.

The Pak Lah-era judiciary played a part in Anwar’s political comeback, eventually as prime minister.