``Anwar may have intentionally hurt himself to derive public sympathy,'' the national news agency Bernama quoted Mahathir as saying.

``It's not impossible because he will get plenty of mileage if he showed he was abused by police,'' Mahathir told reporters. Anwar told a court yesterday that he was punched and slapped until he fell unconscious on the first night in captivity. He was arrested on September 20 under a harsh security provision.

When he appeared at another court today, he repeatedly took off his glasses to dab the area around his left eye that is still black with blood clots.

Amnesty International and the US State department have expressed concern over Anwar's safety in police custody. ``All Malaysians are asking how they could be safe when formerdeputy prime minister could be brutally assaulted while in police custody,'' said Lim Kit Siang, the leader of the Opposition Democratic Action Party.

The Malaysian People's Party, another opposition group, called on Mahathir to guarantee that physical and psychological force would not be used against Anwar.

Anwar was fired by Mahathir on Sept 2. He then launched a movement for political reform which has slowly grown into a campaign for Mahathir's ouster.

Anwar will be tried on ten counts of corruption and illegal homosexual acts. He faces a maximum of 14 years in jail if corruption is established and 20 years if the charges of sodomy are proven.

The government's litigation, however, suffered a reversal after two men, convicted of allowing Anwar to sodomise them, appealed their guilty pleas.

Munawar Anees, Anwar's former speechwriter, and Sukma Dermawan, Anwar's adopted brother, filed their appeals against their convictions at the High Court through their lawyers. Both men, aged 51 and 37respectively, pleaded guilty earlier this month to allowing Anwar to sodomise them. They were sentenced to six months in jail.