PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim believes that colonial-era sodomy laws should be amended to prevent abuse, citing his experience as an example.

"This is not only archaic, these are British colonial laws, introduced in India and replicated in Malaysia.

"It is completely unjust because one can be just accused, and without any proper evidence, in my case clearly," he said.

He said this when asked during an interview with Aljazeera's UpFront on whether he maintained his 2012 position that sodomy laws in Malaysia were "archaic".

Anwar said that his position remained the same and that the law should be amended.

"It is not a matter of sexual orientation," he said. It's what you perform or you display publicly which is against the norms of the majority of Malaysians, not only Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists alike in this country. "

When it was pointed out to Anwar that he and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail appeared to have differing views on whether the LGBT is haram, he explained that what Wan Azizah said was that the sexual act among homosexuals was haram and not sexual orientation.

Anwar himself has been jailed twice for unnatural sex acts throughout his political career.

On May 16, he was granted a full pardon which took effect from 1998, thereby giving him a clean slate.

Anwar has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claimed that the charges against him were trumped up by political opponents.

On the recent caning of two women in Terengganu for attempting same-sex relations, Anwar said what happened to the duo was "clearly unjust".

"I have condemned even the caning of lesbians by the Islamic party state of Terengganu," he said.

"I thought this was clearly unjust. Although they use syariah as a basis, we cannot defend such action."

Two women were subjected to caning in a courtroom on Sept 3 after pleading guilty to same-sex relations.

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