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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said
Thursday he was the victim of a “vendetta” after spending a
night in custody over sodomy allegations that threaten to destroy
his ambitions of seizing power.
Anwar, a former deputy premier who has mounted a
comeback after being sacked and jailed on sodomy and corruption
charges a decade ago, said he was treated like a “major
criminal” and subjected to an examination of his genitals.
After being freed on police bail, he said he
needed medical attention for an old back injury that flared up
during a night in a bare cell at Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.
“Dumped in a cell to sleep on a cold cement
floor with nothing . . . that has exacerbated the pain,” he told a
press conference. “I don’t deserve this—no Malaysian deserves
this. Why treat me like a major criminal?”
“They have seen all my private parts. Of
course I refused to be photographed, it could be on YouTube very
soon!”
Anwar rejected the allegations leveled by
23-year-old aide Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who said the
opposition leader sexually assaulted him at a luxury condo, as a
conspiracy.
“It appears that the events of the last few
days, the nature of my unwarranted arrest, my overnight
incarceration which was actually absolutely unnecessary, were an act
of personal vengeance against me,” he said.
He said he was being targeted because of
allegations he has made against Malaysia’s attorney general and
chief of police over his treatment during his trial a decade ago.
“They should not use this as a personal
vendetta against me.”
The 60-year-old opposition leader defended his
decision not to give a DNA sample during the examination, saying he
had no faith in the system after fabricated DNA evidence was used
against him at his earlier trial.
He also criticized the decision to send police
commandos to arrest him Wednesday, even though he had agreed to
appear for interrogation at a meeting scheduled just an hour later.
Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar defended the
authorities’ actions and rejected allegations the government was
trying to derail Anwar’s plans of forming a new administration
with the help of government defectors.
Anwar’s opposition alliance made stunning
gains in March elections, winning a third of parliamentary seats and
control of five states in a result that has redrawn Malaysia’s
political landscape.
“We are now under international pressure
because of the various allegations, so we need to be careful in what
we do,” Syed Hamid said, dismissing Anwar’s claims as a ploy to
create sympathy at home and abroad.
“[He] has created some negative perceptions.
He has strong supporters in the international arena, he has
conditioned the mind of the people that he is going to become prime
minister and that we are going to stop him,” he said.
Under the bail conditions, Anwar is required to
report back to police on August 18.
-- AFP
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