Saiful was sodomised, says doctor

KUALA LUMPUR: A doctor who examined the young man accusing Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy testified today there was evidence of sexual penetration even though he found no injuries.

Anwar, a former deputy premier who was sacked and jailed on separate sex and corruption counts a decade ago, has insisted the charges have been concocted in a conspiracy to end his political career.

On Thursday prosecutors at his trial took aim at the defence's argument that medical reports showed no evidence of anal sex.

Mohamad Razali Ibrahim, a doctor at Kuala Lumpur Hospital who examined 25-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan after he complained he had been sodomised in 2008, said semen was detected on swabs he took from his body.

"With all the reports before me now, I would say there is evidence of penetration even without clinical injuries. With the presence of semen I would say there is anal penetration," he told the court.

The hearing adjourned for the day but defence counsel Sankara Nair said outside the court that the semen could have been introduced artificially.

"The semen could be anybody's, they have not established whose semen it is," he told reporters.

Nair said that Anwar had an alibi and would argue that during the time of the alleged incident, at an upmarket Kuala Lumpur condominium, he was in fact at a meeting at another apartment in the building.

"The alibi is our defence. He (Anwar) was at the opposite condo with several people including the owner," he said.

Anwar has said he is the victim of a plot to prevent him from taking power, after the opposition made huge strides in 2008 elections, stunning the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition which has been in power for half a century.

The trial began in February but has been punctuated by lengthy delays. At the end of the week it will go into a hiatus until mid-July.

Which condo unit?

Meanwhile Mohd Saiful, when questioned by Anwar's lead counsel Karpal Singh, denied that Anwar was in another condominium unit at the time of the alleged act.

Mohd Saiful, the prosecution's key witness in the sodomy trial, maintained that Anwar was at the unit of the Desa Damansara Condominium where the alleged sodomy took place, and not in another unit of the condominium as suggested by Anwar's counsel Karpal Singh.

Saiful said he had gone to the first unit of the condominium on June 26, 2008, to deliver a document to Anwar.

Karpal Singh: I put it to you that what you stated in your testimony in court did not take place in Unit 11-5-1 of that condominium.

Mohd Saiful: Not true.

Karpal Singh: I put it to you that Anwar was in Unit 11-5-2 of that condominium.

Mohd Saiful: No.

Karpal Singh: Again, as you said in court, it was not true that Anwar was in Unit 11-5-1 of the condominium.

Mohd Saiful: No. He was in Unit 11-5-1.

Karpal Singh: I suggest that Anwar was in Unit 11-5-2.

Mohd Saiful: No.

Karpal Singh then told the court that he had submitted the copy of the alibi notice that his client was not present at Unit 11-5-1 as alleged, to the prosecution on June 19 last year.

Judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah allowed Karpal Singh's application that the hearing, subsequently, be held in camera as it involved the alibi notice of his client.

The hearing in camera took about 14 minutes and the public were allowed to re-enter the courtroom after the defence had finished its cross-examination of Mohd Saiful, who appeared calm and soft-spoken while answering Karpal Singh's questions.

Anwar, 63, who is also the Permatang Pauh Member of Parliament, is charged with sodomising Mohd Saiful, 25, his former aide, at Unit 11-5-1, Desa Damansara Condominium, Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara here, between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.

- AFP/Bernama