PUTRAJAYA: Respect Malay-sia's legal system.

In issuing this reminder to certain foreign governments, which have begun meddling and protesting against the on-going sodomy trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Wisma Putra said the sanctity of the Malaysian judiciary remained intact and free of external influences.

"The judicial institution of any country must be respected.

"The case has just begun, so let the trial go on. They should not be creating their own trial by making damaging comments," Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Senator A. Kohilan Pillay said.

He said while Malaysia welcomed foreign representatives here following the trial closely, foreign governments must observe the country's laws.

Wisma Putra, he added, would call in representatives of countries that had crossed the line and meddled in the country's affairs.

Recently, Australia's Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman Michael Danby had accused the Malaysian legal system of being manipulated by supporters of Barisan Nasional to drive the opposition leader out of national politics.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin told the New Straits Times that some foreign governments' interference in the country's affairs would not bode well for relations between Kuala Lumpur and them.

"For some of these countries, nothing less than Anwar's acquittal would be acceptable.

"That is why they cast aspersions on our legal system and prejudge the outcome of this case," he said yesterday.

Asked on his view of the judicial system, Parti Keadilan Rakyat supreme council member Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, a former law minister, said: "It would not be fair to say that all the judges are subject to manipulation by the government.

"There are many decent, independent and good judges in our system. We just have to have more of them, especially in the upper echelon of the judiciary."