Anwar seeks firm assurance of security for self, family

1926: Opposition Leader Dr Wan Azizah has sent a letter to Prime Minister Abdullah asking him to personally guarantee Anwar’s safety. The letter was received by the Prime Minister’s Office at 3.15pm.

1834: Human rights lawyer Charles Hector has a slightly different take in his blog (see below). He says that Saiful too has rights that need to be protected. That makes sense to me – assuming you have an impartial AG, police force and judiciary. What do you think? Does he have a point?

The defamation suit allegedly being filed with regard a complaint to the police is a shameful act ….and that again is something that should never be done when someone makes a complaint to the police. So what now, will “Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan” now have to do – rush find some lawyer, and expend more money defending a defamation suit. This is VERY wrong and I am shocked if Anwar did indeed file a defamation suit JUST with regard that police report. If that Saiful came out and made some public statement about it, then you can file a defamation action. When it comes to a police report – no one can use the report as a basis for a defamation suit – I believe that is the law. If not, everytime someone files a police report against another, there will be a defamation suit against the complainant — and surely after that no poor person who is victim of a crime is even going to dare to make any police report….

1701: Nat Tan makes a couple of interesting observations in his blog:

Najib:

When questioned on the existence of a photograph of Saiful and his (Najib’s) special officer, taken at the office of the deputy prime minister, Najib said that the photo was taken when Saiful had come to his office to seek a government scholarship to pursue his studies.

Ah. Well. Note to all Malaysians: The doors to the Deputy Prime Minister’s office are now wide open to all Malaysians requiring government scholarships to pursue their studies. Please, stop by.

One more:

Saiful described himself as someone who liked to make friends, “regardless if they were ministers, opposition leaders, gangsters or even road sweepers.”

Gangsters?

1645: Meanwhile, there is still no sign of Petronas’ financial results for the year ended 31 March 2008. The figures should be available now – so what’s the delay? Some quarters are predicting a record profit before tax in the region of RM80-110 billion. I wonder if such results will be released before the big oil hike protest on 6 July.

1611: A journalist now at PKR headquarters confirms that the libel suit against Anwar’s aide was lodged this morning. But the police report against the IGP and AG for their role in 1998-99 has been deferred, presumably for strategic reasons. “The PKR people are determined to nail (the lies behind) these allegations against Anwar,” he says.

He also points out that Anwar’s denials came just three to four hours after the sodomy allegations were first made. This is in sharp contrast to the length of time it took – was it four or five days? – for those implicated in Raja Petra’s statutory declaration (re the Altantuya case) to come up with their respective denials.

1408: It’s that time of the year when you need to pick up some cool “house-keeping tips”. For some light relief, you gotta look up Mustafa’s blog here.

1210: The KLCI is down by 6 per cent points.

0930: The papers are full of the drama yesterday, but beyond the headlines, there’s little analysis of the implications of this new development. I guess no one really knows how it will all pan out. All attention will be on PKR’s planned gathering at Parliament at 1.00pm. Anwar’s lawyers are also expected to file a “saman berkenaan laporan polis berbau fitnah” at the High Court in Jalan Duta at 9.30 am, according to a notice on the PKR website.

Meanwhile, here’s an update from Anwar, published on his blog, in which he says that he is seeking firm assurances of security for himself and his family:

Saya tiba ke Kedutaan awal pagi, berlepas dari Quality Inn. Tahniah diatas kelincahan pasukan khas kita!

Pastilah keletihan kerana hampir tidak tidur malam tadi mendengarkan asakan hujah pimpinan. Pastinya kami menganggap Turki negara sahabat dan keputusan untuk ke sini adalah kerana isu keselamatan semata.

Pengalaman lalu mengajar kita bahawa tindakan ganas dan rakus bisa saja dari pendendam. Dan dalam konteks ini cadangan laporan polis saya terhadap Musa Hasan dan Gani Patail adalah berkaitan. Kita dapat buktikan bagaimana mereka berdua terlibat dalam merekayasa bukti, mendera dan menakutkan orang terlibat.

Maka apa yang dipohon adalah jaminan tegas pimpinan negara agar kecurangan lalu tidak berulang! Sebaik ada jaminan keselamatan diri dan keluarga, kami akan segera pulang.

Meskipun layanan di sini agak lumayan, tidak mungkin sama dengan keselesaan di rumah. Dan tidak diizinkan sebarang pertemuan dengan media atau sahabat. Hanya Azizah dan anak-anak dibenar menziarah saya.

Muda-mudahan pihak pemerintah segera memberikan jaminan keselamatan kepada saya sekeluarga. Jika tegas pengumuman sedemikian, saya akan segera pulang meninggalkan Kedutaan.