KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — The government said today there is no evidence of an affair between Mohd Saiful Bukhari, who has accused Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of sodomising him, and deputy public prosecutor Farah Azlina Latif, who was part of the prosecution team in the ongoing trial.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh that the Attorney-General has investigated claims that Saiful (picture) had a relationship with Farah Azlina.

“But the claims were found to be baseless without any concrete proof,” the de facto law minister said.

However, the Padang Rengas MP said that Farah Azlina was removed from the prosecution team to avoid any further allegations of impropriety in Anwar’s second sodomy trial that began 21 months ago.

Opposition Leader Anwar had tried to strike out the sodomy charge following controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin’s allegations in August 2010 that Saiful and Farah Azlina were in a sexual relationship.

But the High Court ruled that there was no abuse of process as the DPP’s role was “limited, therefore Farah Azlina had no access to any investigation papers, including any documents.”

Judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah made the decision despite noting that the prosecution team had not answered the defence’s affidavit concerning the alleged affair, “so the court must accept what has been said as the truth.”

He had also refused to call Saiful and Farah Azlina to answer allegations about their “affair” during the former deputy prime minister’s trial.

The court has set November 23 to hear closing statements before ruling on the sodomy charge with a conviction possibly ending the PKR de facto leader’s ambitions of becoming prime minister.

Anwar, who was once next in line to be PM, was toppled from power when he was first charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998.

The then deputy prime minister was sacked from the Cabinet and was later convicted and jailed for both offences.

He was freed in September 2004 after the Federal Court overturned his sodomy conviction and resurrected his career by winning his old Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a 2008 by-election.

He also led the opposition coalition to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.