Malaysia’s top court on Wednesday is expected to issue a verdict on the final appeal filed by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against a sodomy conviction that critics believe was engineered to end the threat he posed to the nation’s ruling elite who’ve ruled the country since independence in 1957.

“Malaysia’s sodomy law seems to exist chiefly to persecute Anwar Ibrahim,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.  “This drawn-out political theater has long been exposed as an attempt by the government to take Malaysia’s most senior opposition leader out of political contention.”

Sodomy is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, even if it is consensual.  In March, the appeals court had reversed Anwar’s earlier acquittal and sentenced him to five years in prison.  On Tuesday, he spoke to supporters before going before the Federal Court to argue against the verdict.

“I am confident of winning the case if we have judicial independence,” the 67-year-old Anwar said to 200 of his supporters.  “I’m mentally prepared, but I don’t have much hope.”