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.