The judge in the sex and corruption trial of the sacked deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, has cancelled the arrest warrant issued against a lawyer working closely with his defence team.

The judge, Augustine Paul, said he had accepted an apology from the lawyer, Manjeet Singh Dillon, over allegations that prosecutors had tried to fabricate evidence against Mr Anwar.

He said the apology was a brave and bold thing to do.

On Monday, the judge sentenced another of the defence lawyers, Zainur Zakaria, to three months in prison for contempt; the sentence has since been suspended pending an appeal.