In an unprecedented situation, lawyer Karpal Singh has been charged with sedition over remarks he made he made in the trial last September, alleging a possible plot to poison his client with arsenic while in jail.

Karpal, who denies sedition and is free on bail, faces a separate trial in the High Court at a date to be fixed. If convicted he could be fined or jailed for up to three years.

Karpal, also deputy chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), was one of five opposition figures arrested earlier this month -- and bailed pending trial -- in a move which attracted widespread criticism.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang has said Malaysia was becoming "an international pariah" over Karpal's case. He said it violated United Nations' principles on lawyers, which confer immunity for statements made in court in good faith.

The government ridiculed the poisoning claim and an independent medical inquiry later found Anwar was not suffering from acute arsenic poisoning at the time its tests were conducted.

Karpal told AFP he would raise his sedition arrest with Arifin Jaka, the judge in Anwar's trial. "I have to tell him this is the position, that I am caught up in this predicament," he said.

"This is something that has never happened before. I will ask the judge to give me some guidelines."

Anwar's trial -- his second since he was sacked by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as deputy premier and finance minister on September 2, 1998 -- is likely to make headlines in other respects also.

His supporters said last week they would press on with plans for a demonstration outside court Tuesday despite government warnings.

And lawyers for Anwar's co-accused -- his adopted Indonesian brother Sukma Darmawan -- said they still expected to call Mahathir as a witness.

"Yes, of course," said Sukma's counsel Gobind Singh Deo, Karpal's son, when asked if he planned to call the premier. Mahathir has been served with a subpoena but Attorney-General Mohtar Abdullah has said he may ask for it to be set aside.

Anwar was detained on September 20, 1998, initially under the controversial Internal Security Act, after leading mass anti-government protests.

In April last year he was jailed for six years for abusing his official powers to cover up allegations of heterosexual and homosexual misconduct.

Anwar faces up to 20 years if convicted of sodomy. He has said in court that he became the victim of a top-level conspiracy after threatening to expose corruption while in government.

The government denies corruption and says the courts operate independently.

Anwar is due to resume giving evidence Tuesday and Sukma is expected to take the stand next week. Each defendant will then call witnesses.

Defence lawyers said the trial might be finished within a month.

The hearing was adjourned on November 15 five days after Mahathir announced a snap general election, which was held November 29. Court officials said Arifin was unwell with back pain and had been advised by his doctor to rest.

Anwar said at the time the postponement would give the "wrong impression to the people on the integrity and independence of the judiciary."

Mahathir kept a two-thirds parliamentary majority for his National Front coalition but its dominant party suffered setbacks at the hands of an opposition alliance whose candidate for premier was Anwar.

Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, head of the National Justice Party, won her husband's former seat.

"He is in very good spirits and relatively good health," she told AFP Saturday, adding that the splitting headaches he suffered from previously had subsided.

Anwar, 52, and Sukma, 38, are separately charged with sodomising Azizan Abu Bakar at Sukma's apartment "one night at 7.45 p.m., between January and March

Sukma faces another charge of abetting Anwar in sodomising Azizan, a former chauffeur for Wan Azizah.