Anwar trial prosecutor denies a 'plot' report

Anwar trial prosecutor denies a 'plot' report

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian prosecution denied on Monday the existence of any report naming top officials alleged to have conspired against ousted deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim in the second week of his corruption trial.

"For the record, we have information that there is no such report dated Sept. 3, 1997 addressed to the prime minister (Mahathir Mohamad)," chief prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail told the court, at the start of the second week of his corruption trial.

Anwar's defense team alleges that the report was written by outgoing police intelligence chief Mohamed Said Awang and contains the names of several top officials including ministers.

Said was the first prosecution witness and left the stand on Monday after five days of testimony during which he was intensively grilled by defense lawyers.

Defense lawyer Christopher Fernando told the court they were looking for the report and agreed to put the matter on hold providing Said could be recalled later.

"I was informed by my client there is such a report. We are making every effort to find the report," Fernando said.

"My client is sure of the report, and he is sure of the contents."

Anwar is believed to have seen a copy of the report, and his defense team is trying to locate it.

"My lord, we need to point it straight. We are asking for a report handed to the prime minister. We do not want to split hairs asking for the second report," Fernando said.

Anwar, who was sacked as deputy premier and finance minister by Mahathir on Sept. 2, has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of corruption and sodomy. He alleges he is the victim of a conspiracy to discredit him.

Presiding judge Augustine Paul told Gani he should call police officers to confirm Said's testimony that there was no September report.

In a coup for the defense, a report written in August 1997 by Said into the allegations of sexual misconduct by Anwar was produced in court last Friday.

Said wrote that the accusations against Anwar were baseless and part of a smear campaign. He also acknowledged that Anwar's accusers, his driver and the sister of his former private secretary, could have been unwitting pawns in a conspiracy.

The woman who accused Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy in 1997 said Daim Zainuddin, a confidant of Mahathir, had advised her to write a report detailing the allegations.

Anwar's lawyers released a letter dated Aug. 18, 1997, by Ummi Hafilda Ali, sister of Anwar's former private secretary, in which she retracted the allegations, saying they were based largely on "imagination and assumption".

In her report sent to Mahathir on Aug. 5, 1997, Ummi accused Anwar of adultery with her brother's wife and of a homosexual relation with Anwar's former driver.

Ummi said that before she wrote the allegations, she had met Daim and the wife of Domestic Trade Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob in early August 1997.

"At that meeting, he (Daim) advised that a report be prepared in black and white before it is presented to the prime minister," Ummi said in her retraction letter, portions of which were read on Monday to the capital's High Court.

Ummi said she then met Mahathir's political secretary, Aziz Shamsuddin. Mahathir has said Anwar was morally unfit, but Anwar has said he was the victim of a high-level conspiracy to drive him from office.