Malaysian lawmaker who defended Anwar killed in car crash

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - A leading Malaysian politician who gained fame defending opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in his sensational sodomy trials was killed in a road accident on Thursday, police said.

Karpal Singh, 73, was killed along with a longtime assistant when his vehicle struck a lorry on a highway in the northern state of Perak in the early morning, state police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah said.

Anwar said the news of Karpal's death came "like a lightning bolt".

"Just last evening, I had had a lengthy chat with him," the opposition leader said in a statement, expressing "profound sadness".

He called Karpal "an inspiring symbol for the struggle against oppression and injustice".

The outspoken Karpal -- wheelchair-bound following a 2005 road accident -- emerged as a leading lawyer in the 1970s.

First elected to parliament in 1978, he was detained in 1987 for more than a year under a tough crackdown on opposition figures.

He later went on to defend Anwar, who was ousted in 1998 from the top ranks of the authoritarian Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition that still rules Malaysia.

After losing a struggle for power, Anwar was convicted on sodomy and corruption charges widely viewed as politically motivated. He spent six years in jail.

He later emerged to lead a once-divided political opposition to stunning electoral successes that have brought it to the cusp of power.

Karpal again defended Anwar against new sodomy charges brought in 2008. Anwar was acquitted in 2012 but that was overturned by a higher court in March in a ruling denounced by rights groups.

Anwar, who faces five years in jail, plans to appeal.

Karpal, an ethnic Indian of the Sikh faith, was convicted in February of sedition in a ruling he denounced as "political intimidation" by the Barisan government led by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The case stemmed from comments he made in 2009 that were deemed to have questioned the actions of Perak's ceremonial Islamic sultan. It is illegal to insult predominantly Muslim Malaysia's nine state sultans.

Najib, currently on a trip to Turkey, offered his "condolences to the family" of Karpal in a Twitter posting.

Najib had pledged in 2012 to abolish the Sedition Act but authorities have continued to use the law, mainly against opposition figures.