It is almost 11 years since Anwar Ibrahim, newly sacked as deputy prime minister, was first slapped with trumped-up charges of sodomy and corruption (abuse of power), 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 first (corruption) charge, but at the final level of appeal against conviction on the charge of committing sodomy, he was acquitted and released on 2 September 2004. The two cases were interrelated, although tried separately: the corruption charge was that he had abused his position to direct the police to halt investigations into his alleged sexual misconduct.
Now, with Anwar once more poised to take over the reins of government, the nightmare is starting all over again. On 16 July 2008, Anwar was arrested on a new charge of sodomy, after a report was lodged by a junior aide in his office. Anwar claims that the charge is, again, politically motivated, a renewed attempt to scuttle his political career which has revived dramatically, against all the odds, since his release. Most people both inside and outside the country agree with this assessment.
The new case – its facts and the way it is being conducted by the authorities – looks alarmingly like the earlier ones. These were marked by: political interference; falsification of evidence; blackmailing of prosecution witnesses as well as several of Anwar’s close friends and associates; harassment of defence lawyers and also several civil servants who did not speak, report or act according to the recommended script; the court’s or judge’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, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the alleged victim, is known to have had contact with senior police officers and high-level politicians of the ruling party, including the Prime Minister and his wife, before he made his police report regarding the sexual offence allegedly committed by Anwar. Ominously, the main members of the prosecution team were all involved in the earlier case, 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 highest judicial level, has also been denied a raft of important documents to help them mount an effective defence, and there are unmistakable signs of unholy cooperation between the police, Attorney General’s Chambers and the judiciary.
The new case is being pursued despite the absence of evidence: Anwar has a solid alibi for the day and time mentioned in the single-event charge, and all four doctors, including three specialists, who examined the alleged victim, reported that there was no evidence of penetration.
Anwar’s case should be seen in a broader context of systematic obstruction of and attacks on the Opposition and its elected representatives, often employing the Attorney General’s Chambers to prosecute them on frivolous or even fabricated charges, via either the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The people’s faith in the integrity and independence of both of these agencies has been seriously eroded as a result.
Since the Opposition’s gains in the 2008 General Election, ruling party senior leaders, including the Prime Minister, have publicly vowed to wrest back total control of the constituencies they lost “by any means”. Their biggest success was to stage a coup last year to regain the Perak state government, but this has turned out to be a pyrrhic victory, since it was painfully obvious that it was achieved by blatant manipulation of judicial process and has thus only ratcheted up the people’s disgust.
Among other methods employed has been the luring of Opposition, and especially People’s Justice Party, representatives to jump ship and join, or rejoin, UMNO. Most of them seem to have had severe personal financial problems, and UMNO was only too happy to help them out of their difficulties.
Anwar’s trial began on 2 February and saw completion of the lead prosecutor’s examination-in-chief of Saiful, their star witness. The hearing was subsequently adjourned to clear related appeals and applications, and is due to resume on 25 March.
WHAT OTHERS SAY
John MalottSenator John KerryWashington Post, 7 Feb 2010 : “If led by Mr. Anwar, [the opposition coalition] would have a fair chance of winning the next national election in 2013. That’s one reason it’s suspicious that, three months after the state election victories in 2008, Mr. Anwar was once again accused of sodomy.”
Editorial of
Jonathan Manthorpe,Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald: “The case is a joke. It exposes the Najib government as desperate and underhanded. It makes Malaysia a subject of international ridicule. While under Mahathir this form of legal manipulation might have been smart autocracy, in today’s world it just looks like Malaysia is playing around with its national future.”The Economist 4 Feb: “UMNO-owned media will harp on the sordid details, just as they did in the first trial when a semen-stained mattress was hauled into court. The blogosphere, however, where young Malaysians get their news, may not be easily impressed. Nor, it seems, will foreign investors, whom Mr Najib is desperate to attract with promises of a more open and less UMNO-dominated economy. His government’s image is already dented by corruption scandals, including a multibillion dollar project at Port Klang that has been dogged by accusations of mismanagement and cronyism. Some Malaysians may be wondering why such matters seem to generate less heat than Mr Anwar’s alleged transgressions.” Vancouver Sun: “For the past two years, there have been hopes and expectations that Malaysia was about to become a proper democracy after more than half a century of one-party rule since independence from Britain in 1957. But the chances of that are receding as the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition uses the full force of its institutional control against the prime proponent of reform, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim…[I]t is widely expected Malaysia’s compliant courts will do the bidding of their political masters.”, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman: “The current charges closely mirror the ones levied years ago, and have been brought soon after Mr. Anwar’s resumption of his role as elected Member of Parliament and leader of the parliamentary opposition. I urge the Malaysian government to accord Mr. Anwar every legal protection to which he is entitled as a Member of Parliament and as a citizen – and to settle his case in a manner that builds confidence in the impartiality and credibility of the Malaysian judicial system.”, former US ambassador to Malaysia: “…the prosecution is required by law to give the defence team whatever evidence necessary for the accused to mount a defence but prosecutors are doing the exact opposite. How can they convince us (that it is a fair trial) when they withhold vital information needed defend someone.”
Mark Tran, The Guardian 8 Feb: “It does not take a cynic to question the timing of Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial…”The Hon Mr Michael Danby, Australian MP:“For the second time, the Malaysian legal system is being manipulated by supporters of the incumbent government to drive Malaysia’s best known leader Anwar Ibrahim out of national politics. For the second time, documents are being forged, witnesses are being coerced, evidence is being fabricated.
This trial, like the first trial of Anwar Ibrahim, is a disgrace to Malaysia, a country that aspires to democratic norms, where parties change power peacefully and political opponents are not persecuted by organs of the state.”
Now, with Anwar once more poised to take over the reins of government, the nightmare is starting all over again. On 16 July 2008, Anwar was arrested on a new charge of sodomy, after a report was lodged by a junior aide in his office. Anwar claims that the charge is, again, politically motivated, a renewed attempt to scuttle his political career which has revived dramatically, against all the odds, since his release. Most people both inside and outside the country agree with this assessment.
The new case – its facts and the way it is being conducted by the authorities – looks alarmingly like the earlier ones. These were marked by: political interference; falsification of evidence; blackmailing of prosecution witnesses as well as several of Anwar’s close friends and associates; harassment of defence lawyers and also several civil servants who did not speak, report or act according to the recommended script; the court’s or judge’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, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the alleged victim, is known to have had contact with senior police officers and high-level politicians of the ruling party, including the Prime Minister and his wife, before he made his police report regarding the sexual offence allegedly committed by Anwar. Ominously, the main members of the prosecution team were all involved in the earlier case, 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 highest judicial level, has also been denied a raft of important documents to help them mount an effective defence, and there are unmistakable signs of unholy cooperation between the police, Attorney General’s Chambers and the judiciary.
The new case is being pursued despite the absence of evidence: Anwar has a solid alibi for the day and time mentioned in the single-event charge, and all four doctors, including three specialists, who examined the alleged victim, reported that there was no evidence of penetration.
Anwar’s case should be seen in a broader context of systematic obstruction of and attacks on the Opposition and its elected representatives, often employing the Attorney General’s Chambers to prosecute them on frivolous or even fabricated charges, via either the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The people’s faith in the integrity and independence of both of these agencies has been seriously eroded as a result.
Since the Opposition’s gains in the 2008 General Election, ruling party senior leaders, including the Prime Minister, have publicly vowed to wrest back total control of the constituencies they lost “by any means”. Their biggest success was to stage a coup last year to regain the Perak state government, but this has turned out to be a pyrrhic victory, since it was painfully obvious that it was achieved by blatant manipulation of judicial process and has thus only ratcheted up the people’s disgust.
Among other methods employed has been the luring of Opposition, and especially People’s Justice Party, representatives to jump ship and join, or rejoin, UMNO. Most of them seem to have had severe personal financial problems, and UMNO was only too happy to help them out of their difficulties.
Anwar’s trial began on 2 February and saw completion of the lead prosecutor’s examination-in-chief of Saiful, their star witness. The hearing was subsequently adjourned to clear related appeals and applications, and is due to resume on 25 March.
WHAT OTHERS SAY
John MalottSenator John KerryWashington Post, 7 Feb 2010 : “If led by Mr. Anwar, [the opposition coalition] would have a fair chance of winning the next national election in 2013. That’s one reason it’s suspicious that, three months after the state election victories in 2008, Mr. Anwar was once again accused of sodomy.”
Editorial of
Jonathan Manthorpe,Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald: “The case is a joke. It exposes the Najib government as desperate and underhanded. It makes Malaysia a subject of international ridicule. While under Mahathir this form of legal manipulation might have been smart autocracy, in today’s world it just looks like Malaysia is playing around with its national future.”The Economist 4 Feb: “UMNO-owned media will harp on the sordid details, just as they did in the first trial when a semen-stained mattress was hauled into court. The blogosphere, however, where young Malaysians get their news, may not be easily impressed. Nor, it seems, will foreign investors, whom Mr Najib is desperate to attract with promises of a more open and less UMNO-dominated economy. His government’s image is already dented by corruption scandals, including a multibillion dollar project at Port Klang that has been dogged by accusations of mismanagement and cronyism. Some Malaysians may be wondering why such matters seem to generate less heat than Mr Anwar’s alleged transgressions.” Vancouver Sun: “For the past two years, there have been hopes and expectations that Malaysia was about to become a proper democracy after more than half a century of one-party rule since independence from Britain in 1957. But the chances of that are receding as the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition uses the full force of its institutional control against the prime proponent of reform, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim…[I]t is widely expected Malaysia’s compliant courts will do the bidding of their political masters.”, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman: “The current charges closely mirror the ones levied years ago, and have been brought soon after Mr. Anwar’s resumption of his role as elected Member of Parliament and leader of the parliamentary opposition. I urge the Malaysian government to accord Mr. Anwar every legal protection to which he is entitled as a Member of Parliament and as a citizen – and to settle his case in a manner that builds confidence in the impartiality and credibility of the Malaysian judicial system.”, former US ambassador to Malaysia: “…the prosecution is required by law to give the defence team whatever evidence necessary for the accused to mount a defence but prosecutors are doing the exact opposite. How can they convince us (that it is a fair trial) when they withhold vital information needed defend someone.”
Mark Tran, The Guardian 8 Feb: “It does not take a cynic to question the timing of Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial…”The Hon Mr Michael Danby, Australian MP:“For the second time, the Malaysian legal system is being manipulated by supporters of the incumbent government to drive Malaysia’s best known leader Anwar Ibrahim out of national politics. For the second time, documents are being forged, witnesses are being coerced, evidence is being fabricated.
This trial, like the first trial of Anwar Ibrahim, is a disgrace to Malaysia, a country that aspires to democratic norms, where parties change power peacefully and political opponents are not persecuted by organs of the state.”
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