Who is bending over – Anwar or the criminal justice system?

sodomy

It has been almost 12 years since Anwar Ibrahim, newly sacked as deputy prime minister, was first charged with trumped-up charges of sodomy and corruption, and subsequently put through two trials which were condemned around the world as manifestly flawed and politically motivated.

He spent six years in detention, in solitary confinement throughout, after his conviction on the corruption charge. Later at the final appeal against the sodomy conviction, he was acquitted and released on 2 September 2004.

Now, with Anwar once more poised to lead the opposition coalition into the next general elections – with good prospects of taking over the reins of government, the nightmare is starting all over again.

On 16 July 2008, Anwar, then 61 years old, was arrested on a new charge of sodomy, after a police report was lodged by Saiful Bukhari, a 23 year-old junior aide in his office alleging several incidents of sodomy without consent.

It is clear that the charge of consensual sodomy (why not without consent as in the police report?) is, again, politically motivated, a renewed attempt to sabotage the opposition and Anwar’s leadership, both of which were revived dramatically since the 8 March 2008 general elections.

Otherwise, how else can you explain the accusation that a warga emas with a well known serious back problem can forcefully sodomise a young man – not once but several times!

The new case – its facts and the way it is being conducted – looks alarmingly like the earlier ones. In the earlier cases, they were marked by:

i) political interference;

ii) falsification of evidence;

iii) blackmailing of prosecution witnesses as well as several of Anwar’s close friends and associates;

iv) harassment of defence lawyers and also several civil servants who did not speak, report or act according to the recommended script;

v) the court’s rejection of documents, and refusal to allow witness testimony, which was favourable to the accused; and

a string of unfair or questionable rulings and decisions by the judges both during the course of the trial and in the ultimate judgment of the cases, which often put a premature end to the defence counsel’s line of questioning.

In the present case, the alleged victim is known to have had contact (and in fact testified in court) with senior police officers and high-level UMNO politicians, including the Prime Minister and his lovely first lady, before he made his police report against Anwar.

Ominously, the main members of the prosecution team were all involved in the earlier cases, which involved fabrication of evidence and suppression of evidence favourable to the defendant, but an application to disqualify this tainted prosecution team met with failure.

Anwar’s defence team, despite appealing right to the Federal Court, has also been denied several important documents to help them mount an effective defence, and there are unmistakable signs of wrongful cooperation between the police, the AG’s Chambers and the judiciary.

The new case is being pursued despite the absence of evidence, most crucially that all four doctors, including three specialists, who examined the alleged victim, reported that there was no evidence of penetration:

No conclusive clinical findings suggestive of penetration to the anus/rectum and no significant defensive wound on the body of the patient – Kuala Lumpur General Hospital report, 28 June, 2008.

But lo and behold! One of the doctors, Dr. Mohd Razali Ibrahim has now testified that because there was presence of semen in the swabs taken, therefore there is now penetration!

Hallelujah! A miracle unseen since more than 2,000 years ago! Hallelujah!

Only in our criminal justice system can the prosecutors and the police fabricate evidence at will, witnesses including medical professionals mislead and lie under oath, and the judges (most of them anyway) just accept everything by making ridiculous arguments that great contortionist judges – Augustine Paul, Ariffin Jaka, Eusoff Chin, Pajan Singh Gill and the likes would be proud of.

The defence team as expected is now facing similar difficulties as in the previous trials – hostile and uncooperative prosecutors and judges who have scuttled all attempts to obtain a fair and independent trial by rejecting all interlocutory applications.

This persecution and blatant injustice should not come as a surprise as the case should be seen in the broader context of systematic harassment and attacks on the opposition and its elected representatives, often employing the AG’s Chambers to prosecute them on oppressive, frivolous or even fabricated charges, via the police and the MACC.

What this ongoing trial has clearly shown again and again is that in politically important cases, the criminal justice system can be manipulated, and the judiciary, the AG’s Chambers, the police and even government hospital doctors will all play along.

I just don’t understand how these people can walk around without shame – pretend that all is innocent and alright among their peers, friends and family members when it is obvious that they have lost sight on why they became judges, prosecutors, policemen and doctors in the first place.

Sure from time to time there are brave judges who have decided politically important cases independently, i.e. in accordance to the laws and facts, fairness and justice, but how many of such cases, and where are these judges now? Probably languishing in unimportant commercial/ family law divisions or getting transferred to remote locations, and watching compliant junior judges get promoted while they are passed over.

The question now is: Should Anwar and the defence team go through this sham trial when we know for a fact that Anwar at some point will be convicted, even though everyone knows that if the accused was not Anwar but instead a nobody accused of consensual sodomy, the case would have ended at the investigation stage?

Maybe there will a miracle?

Or maybe we can just work towards Putrajaya and ensure that the country gets a criminal justice system that it truly deserves.

LB: Eric Paulsen is a member of Lawyers for Liberty, a newly formed human rights and law reform initiative.

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8 replies on “Encik Anwar, please bend over”

  1. And most of those trying to fix Anwar are Muslims (at least, if you ask them to eat pork, definitely they'll refuse, although the pork is served as tasty satay, with the excuse that they are Muslims and therefore pork-taking is haram).

    Don't they realise that as Muslims, their place would definitely be in the burning fire of hell for thousands of years. They'll suffer the burning forever because there'll no second death in the hereafter.

    And they had better take Allah's warning seriously.

    I hope the prosecution, the police and all the witnesses will realize this.

  2. "2.00pm: Saiful, accompanied by Tuah, sees Dr Mohamad Osman Abdul Hamid at Hospital Pusrawi complaining of pains."

    later the four doctors said

    "There is no penetration mark or wound found because lubricant has been used. "

    The big question to the four doctor is ! How someone will feel pain if there is no wound or and damage happen in particular area????? Very clearly Saiful in his statements he declared of pains in his ass.

  3. i admire the guts of anwar…he is taking on the…gangsters…who have been looting the public…from mahathir to najib to attorney general to the chief justice…in fact all of them are tainted with blood…and none of them are are qualified…just jingoisim prevails at the moment in malaysia…

  4. How is Anwar ever going to expect and obtain justice from an UMNO/BN regime judicial system that is so obviously and blatantly stacked against him? I am still wondering why he borders to pursue his case in the UMNO/BN court when he has been denied his fair dinkum repeatedly. He should have just declared his refusal to recognise the authority of the UMNO/BN courts to try him and let the Malaysian people and world judge him instead.

  5. Can someone take pictures of all those involved both directly and indirectly with the prosecution of Anwar. We may well need them someday.

    If they can lie and take liberty of another's convenience, why should we be so forgiving? We must make sure that they don't come back to haunt us again.

    They must be condemn to hell because they fear not the good because they are all so, so bad.

  6. have been doing the research on parking related matters and local council in Selangor past week. Like many Malaysians, we tend to be forgetful after 3 months and after a year, the facts will get all jumbled up that many would have forgotten the head and tail on many issues. One such issue is the Local Authority (LA) car parking business in Selangor which I believe was engineered during Khir Toyo time where all LA parking in Selangor was streamline and spread over two companies.

    THE privatisation of parking services in Selangor was formalised sometime in Q2 or Q3, 1999, when the state government decided that the move would bring about a uniformed system to parking in the state which would benefit the local authorities. Legally speaking the state gave the directives and the local authority inked either a 20 or 25 years parking agreement with two companies i.e. Swastapark Sdn Bhd (later renamed as Godell Parking Sdn Bhd) and Suasa Efektif Sdn Bhd. Selangor parking territories are shared between this two entities.

    Godell Parking was given the concession for PJ, Subang Jaya, Sabak Bernam, Hulu Selangor and Kuala Langat for 20+5 years and Suasa Effektif was given Shah Alam, Kelang, Ampang, Selayang, Kajang, Sepang and Kuala Selangor for 25 years. I remembered when KT announces the appointment of these companies, there was some noise in the background on the lack of transparency in view of direct negotiation between both parties. For that matter, the noise stayed in the background and is silenced by other matters.

    Back then the idea to form a uniform parking arrangement was made on the basis of cosmetics and disguise in the form to improve the revenue collection to the local authorities. There was no tender. There was no open selection. There was no pre announce news. There was only announcement on how Selangor Parking is to be shared between the two parties.

    Questions begin to surface on wether the 70/30 contract favouring the concessionaire are indeed fair and works in favour or the local authorities. In Ampang Jaya for example, Suasa Effective apparently owed close to RM 800K in parking rental to MPAJ. The same thing happens in Selayang where the amount is said to be about RM900K.

    In MPAJ, the management practice a contra mechanism where concession collection is contra with the fines issued by MPAJ. The problem here is one of accounting and liquidity. Payment should not have been in contra especially when there issued fines are documented but the collection amount is not the same as the amount issued. While the agreement says that the concessionaire is suppose to pay MPAJ once a month, this is not being done.

    The LA does not act in accordance of the provision of the contract. They appear to be weak in implementing the powers given to them in the contract. What is still not clear is how the 70/30 formula is derived and how does the local authority know how much is being collected. It is also not clear on WHY the LA did not terminate the agreement despite non payment by the concessionaire. Not surprising, the LA is taken for a ride and the weak management and the local councillor’s fails in their fiduciary duties in ensuring that the revenue of the LA is maximized. I believe it is time for the State Government to revisit this matter and find ways to maximize the profit for the local authorities. I hope the new batch of councillors in Ampang will do a better job in promoting transparency and maximizing revenue for the LA.

  7. Eric,

    what's the point of him going all this lenghty process?scavanging all resources though in the end efforts will be down in drain? it's simply because he's the shrine of democracy. one man that bring glimmer of hope to Boleh-land. if he quits, all will quit with him including the new bipolar democracy that we see now in senate. after more than 50yrs, the government is not able to approve a bill without being challenge. this casts doom spell to all those power monger that feed on public's dismay.

    we might not be able to determine how far the allegation was true. in the end, it will be anwar or saiful. words against words. still, we weigh on their merit. anwar reformed nation's democracy whereas this saiful is just a mere university drop out. he is able to visit Prime Minister without a hassle. PM's statement, "i'll attend anyone in need". in that case, i should go to Putrajaya and asked him 1k then. i'm in need obviously.

    well, as pain as it gets, reality check, this is Boleh-land. everything is permissible here. just hope this nightmare will not be endured by future generation. for that to happen, it starts now.

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