The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has allowed Anwar Ibrahim's application to strike out certain paragraphs in Utusan Malaysia's defence in a defamation suit brought by the PKR de facto leader.

The expunged paragraphs were about Anwar's convictions on corruption charges in 1999 and sodomy II charge in 2015, which Utusan cited to justify its report against the former opposition leader.

Justice John Louis O'Hara made the decision based on the argument that criminal case convictions should not be raised in a civil proceeding.