New revelations in Anwar trial

New revelations in Anwar trial

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): A psychiatrist told Anwar Ibrahim's sex trial on Thursday that police compelled him to reveal information given to him in confidence by the former minister's adopted brother.

Mohamed Fadzil Man said police forced him to divulge what he had learnt about Anwar's adopted brother, Sukma Darmawan, although he was aware he could be breaching doctor-patient confidentiality with Sukma, who was being treated for depression.

Sukma was convicted in September of being sodomized by Anwar and is standing trial with the former minister on charges of having sex with the Anwar family's former driver.

The psychiatrist, the prosecution's second witness, said a police officer came to his office last year and recorded a statement from him about a consultation Sukma had with him in 1994 when he was suffering from depression.

The psychiatrist's testimony about Sukma's family and what he had learnt from him was heard in closed court after Judge Arifin Jaka ruled it could scandalize Sukma's family or prejudice him.