By Teoh El Sen - Free Malaysia Today
KLANG: In a new twist to the Anwar Ibrahim sodomy saga, a former aide has claimed that he was forced to lie for the opposition leader in two statutory declarations made in 2008.
Rahimi Osman also filed a police report on the matter this afternoon.
In his report, the former aide said he was forced to ink the documents in June 2008 regarding Anwar and Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
"The SDs are untrue and was not written by myself," he said.
Rahimi claimed that he signed the documents because he feared for his safety at the time as he was surrounded by Anwar's supporters and his “right-hand men” in a hotel in Shah Alam.
"After Saiful made a police report saying he was sodomised by Anwar, Anwar's people as well as his laywers, including (PKR information chief) Latheefa Koya and Saiful Izham Ramli, forced me to stay at Quality Hotel," he said.
"They then forced me to put down my signature when I did not agree with the contents of the SDs at all," he added.
Rahimi stated that in his first SD signed on June 28, he had "accused" Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor of conspiring against Anwar.
He made a new SD today, because he wanted to "tell the truth".
"A few months ago, Latheefa called me to ask me to sign a new SD as she told me the one I signed previously was lost. However, I did not entertain them and tried my best to stay away from them,” he said.
In his police report, Rahimi also asked for protection since he was most likely to be called in as a witness in the sodomy trial.
Meanwhile, Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair denied Rahimi's claim of being forced to sign the SDs and questioned the timing of the latest revelation.
“He made the statutory declaration voluntarily and it was in Anwar's favour. By the way, why is he making an about turn now? After about three years?” he asked.
Mob storms restaurant
Rahimi's attempt to disclose the matter at a press conference in a restaurant here this evening was thwarted when a group of Anwar's supporters stormed the venue.
The men hurled abuses at Rahimi, and among others, shouted: “How many millions did you get?” and “We know everything”.The men, led by PKR vice-presidential hopeful R Suresh Kumar, also threatened to forcefully drag Rahimi out of the restaurant if he did not end the press conference. He subsequently called off the press conference.
Speaking to reporters later, Suresh said he and his group came to protect Anwar from any false allegations.
"We don't know what he was going to expose but we know it's something bad. But he's the culprit. I know very well what he did to Saiful, I met his father also.
“Suddenly he comes out, definitely he got something from the government. So there's no story, there's nothing. Now the case is in court, why now? Who is Rahimi, why suddenly come out?" he asked.
Suresh also alleged that Rahimi and Saiful had a "special relationship" without elaborating.
Anwar was accused of sodomising Saiful in a condominium in Kuala Lumpur, and the opposition leader, who is facing his second sodomy charge in a decade, claimed that it was a sequel to the political conspiracy authored against him in 1998.
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