Bittersweet win for Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim
Bittersweet win for Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim
By Nelson Graves
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysia's jailed former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim has won legal vindication over a beating he suffered in police detention, but his assailant's trial prompted renewed criticism of the system of justice.
Eighteen months after Anwar was beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed in a detention cell, former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor on Tuesday pleaded guilty to hitting the ex-prime-minister-in-waiting on the night of his arrest in 1998.
Rahim Noor's plea on the first day of his trial cleared the way for the Sessions Court to convict the former police chief of "causing hurt" to Anwar. Sentencing was set for Wednesday.
Rahim Noor's conviction provided a measure of legal closure for Anwar, who has been behind bars since the night of September 20, 1998, when hooded police burst into his suburban home and arrested him.
Hours later, according to Anwar, he was punched and slapped while blindfolded and handcuffed.
The beating took place in a detention cell in federal police headquarters across the street from the capital's main square where earlier on that Sunday Anwar had led 30,000 supporters in an unprecedented anti-government protest.
Since the day after he was sacked in September 1998, Anwar has said he was the victim of a conspiracy by political opponents bent on preventing him from succeeding Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and exposing corruption and cronyism.
Mahathir has dismissed Anwar's arguments, saying he was morally unfit and determined to overthrow the government.
Anwar's injuries at the hands of the nation's most senior police officer did not become public until nine days after the beating when he appeared in court with a black eye and bruises.
Pictures of the injured Anwar provoked international outrage and focused attention on his argument that he was the target of a plot extending deep within the administration.
Anwar's treatment, according to London-based rights group Amnesty International, "has provoked increasing numbers of Malaysians to question the extent to which the executive branch of government has, step by step, undermined constitutional principles safeguarding basic human rights".
Little wonder then that the opposition and rights groups reacted angrily on Tuesday when government prosecutors bowed to a request by Rahim Noor's lawyers and reduced the charge against the ex-police chief.
Instead of facing a maximum of 42 months in jail and a fine set at the court's discretion, Rahim Noor faced a maximum of one year in jail and a fine of 2,000 ringgit (US$525).
"I am quite shocked to hear this," Tian Chua, vice president of the opposition Parti Keadilan Nasional, told Reuters.
"It is a shame that someone who has committed such a great crime can escape from legal consequence."
A diplomat said: "Obviously it's a slap on the wrist."
Anwar's supporters pointed to discrepancies between the six- year jail term which the ex-minister received in April for covering up allegations of sex crimes, and the maximum one year in jail that Rahim Noor faced.
They also noted that Rahim Noor was never held in detention after being charged, and that almost a year passed between his indictment and the start of his trial. Anwar's corruption trial began six weeks after he was arrested.
"This is shocking simply because this crime was not committed by any ordinary policeman but by the highest official in the police force whose duty is to safeguard justice," P. Ramakrishnan, president of rights group Aliran, told Reuters.
"It's a travesty of justice."
Lim Kit Siang, national chairman of the Democratic Action Party, told Reuters: "This latest development will not enhance public confidence in the system of justice in the country or about selective prosecution."
Rahim Noor's lawyer K. Kumarendran said the original charge could not hold because Anwar did not suffer "emasculation, permanent deprivation of eyesight or hearing, disfiguration of the head and fractures or dislocation of bones".