Govt won't ask police to drop probe, says Syed Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will not ask the police to drop its investigations into the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case just because a medical report said the complainant had not been sodomised, said Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

The Home Minister said the medical report from Hospital Pusrawi was “just one piece of evidence in a whole chain of evidences” at which the police were looking.

“There is not even a charge preferred on him (Anwar) yet, so what are we to drop? We have to let the police complete their investigations, submit their investigating papers to the prosecutor and let the prosecutor decide if there is a case,” he told reporters Tuesday.

He said he was not surprised that Anwar had “gone to town” with the report, declaring himself innocent, as he (Anwar) was adept at playing political games.

Denying the Government was framing Anwar on allegations of sodomy, Syed Hamid said:

”It would be very irrational for the Government to create a case of this nature, at this time, against such a person.”

He said the police were taking so long to complete investigations as they had to be “meticulous and look at every aspect”.

“You should not blame the police for being very cautious and careful because this involves such a famous personality, especially since he (Anwar) is treated differently from ordinary mortals,” he added.

Last month, one of Anwar’s political volunteers, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan lodged a police report that Anwar had sodomised him.

However, a medical report from Hospital Pusrawi made just hours before the police report was made ruled out that Saiful had been sodomised as there was “zero tear and scar”, “zero active bleeding” and zero ulcer or pus in his anus.

The medical report was put on an online news portal, following which Anwar called a press conference Tuesday and asked the police to drop its investigations as this proved he was being framed.

Syed Hamid said it was unethical for the medical report to be leaked, as this constituted a breach of trust between the doctor and patient, and urged the medical fraternity to look into this.

He also denied the police was concealing this piece of evidence, adding that they were in no position to disclose the contents of any report. Syed Hamid said, for the Government, the earlier the investigation was completed and the earlier a decision was made one way or another, the better it would be

SHAHANAAZ HABIB
Star Online
30/07/08

mi1: The STUPIDITY of a minister