KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Tuesday will pause Pakatan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial to hear the latter's bid to disqualify Judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah from presiding over the trial.

The high profile trial was to have resumed today with Anwar's lawyers scheduled to cross-examine prosecution's first witness Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who had accused Anwar of sodomy.

On the outset of proceedings today, Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh informed the court of Anwar's application to seek  Mohamad Zabidin's recusal and urged the judge to first hear the application.

"It must follow logically that the application be heard first (ahead of the trial)," Karpal said, while maintaining that defence was prepared to continue with the trial.

In his affidavit, Anwar said there was "an element of a real danger of bias" by Mohamad Zabidin after the latter declined Karpal's requests last week to cite Malay daily Utusan Malaysia for contempt or to caution the newspaper.

Lead prosecutor Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, however, disagreed, and submitted that Anwar's sodomy trial should proceed until a decision was made on whether Mohamad Zabidin would recuse himself.

Mohd Yusof also said the prosecution team would need more time to reply to Anwar's affidavit, which was filed in court this morning.

Mohamad Zabidin, who sat at the Criminal High Court, then agreed to hear Anwar's application Tuesday and said he would order the court registry to extract and serve the documents on prosecution.

Karpal, who is DAP national chairman, on two occasions last week had voiced his dissatisfaction against Utusan Malaysia's coverage of the sodomy trial.

On Feb 4, Karpal had demanded that Mohamad Zabidin take to task Utusan Malaysia for contempt after the newspaper's frontpage headline on that day read "Tak rela diliwat lagi" ("Unwilling to be sodomised again") in bold yellow words.

Karpal also took offense to a similar headline on the newspaper's page 3 which read "Berhenti kerana tidak mahu diliwat lagi" ("Stopped work because did not want to be sodomised again").

The veteran lawyer contended that the headlines were "inaccurate and mischievous" because it purportedly suggested there was more than one occasion of sodomy, where Anwar was only charged with one count.

On Feb 5, Karpal also took offence with Utusan Malaysia's frontpage photograph caption which described the picture as Saiful, during the court's site visit, showing Mohamad Zabidin the bed in the master bedroom where Saiful claimed to be sodomised by Anwar.

The photograph was taken during the court's site visit to Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara, where the alleged sodomy happened on June 26, 2008.

On both occasions, Mohamad Zabidin had declined to cite Utusan Malaysia for contempt or issue a warning to the newspaper, instead telling Karpal to lodge a police report so investigations can take place to establish contempt.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat communications director Jonson Chong then lodged two police reports against the newspaper.

Met for comment later, Anwar said he merely wanted a "fair and transparent" trial and was not harping on Utusan Malaysia's ownership.

"The question is not whether the newspaper belongs to Umno but the attitude of the judge in just allowing (such things)", Anwar said, noting that Saiful's testimony had yet to be cross-examined by defence lawyers.