Dewan Rakyat: Govt tables DNA bill

The New Straits Times Online
By : V. Vasudevan and Eileen Ng

The government has tabled the long awaited Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Identification Bill 2008, and it is expected to be debated and passed at the current meeting.

Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar quickly quashed any talk that the bill was politicallly motivated.

He said it had nothing do with the current sodomy charge being faced by de factor opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“Suspects have to give their DNA samples compulsorily,” said Syed Hamid in the lobby after tabling the bill for first reading yesterday.

“It is not politically motivated and has nothing to do with Anwar Ibrahim. The government has been working on this bill since 2001. It is ridiculous to attribute it to political motives,” he said.

Syed Hamid said the bill is not targeted specifically at any individual but to record the DNA of every person who is charged in court or arrested. He said the bill covered the extraction of DNA under all crimes covered by the Penal Code.

“There is no law at present on this aspect. What we are doing is introducing a law to regulate and govern the taking of DNA. I don’t think they (the opposition) should attribute a sinister motive to it. If there is a case in court and you are not guilty why should you worry about this bill,” he said.

Anwar should be given copy of police report

The star.com.my

V.P. SUJATA

PUTRAJAYA: Lawyers of PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is charged with sodomy should be provided with a copy of the police report lodged by his accuser, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

He said Anwar’s lawyers would need to read the police report by Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan to prepare their defence in the trial.

“Under the law, he (Anwar) is entitled to the police report to prepare for his defence. By right it should be given to him,” he said, adding that it was the right thing to do, as there was already a charge preferred against Anwar.

He added that it was not necessary to give copies of the investigation papers to his lawyers.

Using Syed Hamid Albar’s intringuing logic, what if Anwar lodges report against Saiful?’

Malaysiakini.com

Using Syed Hamid Albar’s logic, we would end up with two witnesses who can’t be charged, so both charges would have to be dropped.’

On ‘If consensual, why charge me only?’

Judge Judy: Syed Hamid Albar’s reasoning for this selectively imposed charge seems very strange coming from a trained lawyer.

Section 377B is very specific – anyone caught with their pants down performing a sexual act against the order of nature with another person is liable to be charged for an offence.

The protection of the criminal who is the first to lodge a police report does not make any sense.
The fact that he is a witness and therefore cannot be charged makes even less sense.

If this were the case, then Anwar Ibrahim could quite easily choose to make police reports of sodomy, whichever way around, against Najib, Syed Hamid, Abdullah Badawi, Mahathir, the AG, the IGP, and any one else in government.

In the natural course of Malaysian criminal investigations, everyone else would be charged without question whilst DSAI would be invited to sit on the sidelines, secure in the knowledge that the Royal Malaysian Police Force would afford him total protection.

Bearing the above possibility in mind, what would now happen if DSAI were to lodge a police report against Saiful alleging sodomy (either way)?

This would certainly throw the powers-that-be into a downward tizzy, because this report would have to be considered very seriously in light of the report made by Saiful. [more]

The Official Reason Why Self-admitted Criminal Saiful Bukhari Azlan not charged

New Straits Times Online
By : Anbalagan and Nisha Sabanayagam

KUALA LUMPUR: Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan is not being charged with sodomy because he is the complainant, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said.

However, it was up to the courts to decide on the case, he said after a meeting with visiting Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans here yesterday.

“When a person is the reporter of an alleged offence, if you charge the person, he will feel he is not protected,” Syed Hamid said.

He stressed that Anwar was innocent until proven guilty.

“It is important that he goes through the due process. Please bear in mind that Anwar is innocent until proven guilty.”

Syed Hamid likened the case to corruption offences, in which the giver is as guilty as the receiver, but in most cases only the receiver is charged.

“So we have to make choices. That is how the legal system works. The most important thing is that justice prevails. So we leave it to the courts to decide,” he said.

Lawyer Gurbachan Singh, who represented Anwar in his first sodomy trial nine years ago, said Saiful, as crown prosecution witness, was unlikely to face charges. [more]

Note from freeanwar.org: In Islamic law, both the “giver” and the “receiver” in a homosexual relationship are to be punished. If the charges were true, Saiful Bukhari Azlan should also be punished according to Islamic law. Hence, we should not be surprised if Islamic law is not being applied here, especially the ruling from Sheikh Al Alwani from Al-Azhar that the act should have been witnessed by 4 people. Saiful Bukhari Azlan would not have a leg to stand on if Islamic law were applied here.

Anwar about to be arrested?

Straitstimes.com

 

KUALA LUMPUR – TALK spread on Tuesday afternoon that an arrest warrant has been issued for Malaysia’s de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Police, however, refused to confirm the rumours.

Last week, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said police had completed their investigations into the case of Anwar’s alleged sexual assault.  [more]

Please click here to read the whole article.

Permatang Pauh by-election will be costly: Syed Hamid

By SIM LEOI LEOI, The Star online

PUTRAJAYA: The by-election in Permatang Pauh, which will see PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim contesting, will be a “costly affair”.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said there were both “direct and indirect” costs involved in ensuring that the whole democratic process was run efficiently and peacefully.

“The by-election is too soon after the general election in March. If (former MP) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had said earlier that she was giving way to Anwar, then the voters may have decided differently then.

“People don’t usually see the indirect costs. More policemen will need to be deployed to Permatang Pauh to ensure that the whole process is conducted smoothly and peacefully, and to ensure there is no untoward incident.

“This whole operation costs extra money,” he told reporters Tuesday after the ministry’s monthly assembly here. [more]

Please click here to read the whole article.

Anwar Antes Up

FROM TODAY’S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
August 1, 2008

Malaysia’s high-stakes political standoff just had the ante upped. With the resignation of his wife from Parliament yesterday, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim declared he’s running for office in the by-election to fill her seat. The question now is whether the government will allow him to do so.

The stakes are high for the ruling National Front. Mr. Anwar’s three-party opposition coalition controls 82 of 222 parliamentary seats. If Mr. Anwar wins office — which seems likely, given he’s running for the seat he held for 17 years — the opposition says 30 MPs would defect to their side, giving them a majority and likely felling the government. Mr. Anwar would be on his way to becoming Prime Minister.

One way to prevent this from happening would be if Mr. Anwar were convicted of a crime, thereby disqualifying him from office. Remember what happened in 1998, the last time Mr. Anwar was riding a wave of popular support across Malaysia’s varied ethnic voting blocs. He was convicted of corruption and sodomy in 1999 and 2000, respectively; the sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar told a press conference yesterday that the police have wrapped up their investigation into a new sodomy allegation against Mr. Anwar. But like the 1998 case, the circumstances are questionable. [more]

Please click here to read the article.

Probe On Alleged Sodomy By Anwar Ibrahim Completed: Syed Hamid

Bernama

Probe On Alleged Sodomy By Anwar Ibrahim Completed: Syed Hamid

PUTRAJAYA, July 31 (Bernama) — The investigation on the sodomy case allegedly involving Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been completed and forwarded to the Attorney-General for further action, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar.

He said it was police procedure to hand over the investigation papers to the Attorney-General’s office as soon as the investigation process had been completed.

“I was made to understand that the investigation process has been completed and the papers handed over to the Attorney-General’s office. It’s up to the Attorney-General to decide the type of action to be taken against him,” he said.

However, Syed Hamid said he was not told about the contents of the investigation papers.

Commenting on the rumour that police would detain Anwar on Thursday, Syed Hamid said everyone must allow the matter to run according to procedure.

“Let it go according to the legal process. Our laws have stipulated that Anwar is innocent until proven otherwise. So far, there has been no charge against him,” he added.

Malaysia says police done with Anwar investigation

By Loh Li Lian and Jalil Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian police have finished investigating a sodomy complaint against opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, the government said on Thursday, and a security official told Reuters he will soon be formally charged.

The allegations against Anwar, who is gearing up to run for a parliamentary seat in a northern state, have added to months of political uncertainty in the country, rattling investors and denting confidence.

Home (Interior) Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Anwar had not been charged as yet, but that a police investigation was finished.

“The investigations have been completed and the papers sent to the attorney-general for further action, but I do not know what is the content of the investigation,” Syed Hamid told reporters.

But a security source told Reuters that Anwar faced an imminent formal charge. “It should be at anytime now,” the source said, declining to be identified. [more]

Please click here to read the whole article.

Video clips 7/29/08: Anwar Ibrahim versus Syed Hamid–To Drop or Not to Drop The Case

Anwar Ibrahim: Drop the case

PKR Adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim speaks about the leaked medical report in the Internet and urge the police to stop their investigations in a press conference held at PKR headquarters, Tuesday.

Syed Hamid: Cops will not be asked to stop sodomy probe

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar says the police will not be asked to drop investigations into Datuk Seri Anwar’s sodomy case just because a medical report said the complainant was not sodomised.