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Malaysia’s Anwar lodges police report against police chief, attorney general

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim yesterday switched from accused to accuser when he lodged a police report against the country’s police chief and attorney general for their alleged role in falsely charging him with corruption and sodomy in 1998.

Anwar, who is battling fresh allegations over the weekend of sodomy by a male aide, filed a report at a police station in the central Selangor state alleging that national police chief Musa Hassan and Attorney General Gani Patail “were actively involved” in falsely charging the former deputy prime minister.

“I have evidence to show how they manipulated the facts, fabricated evidence and denied me my rights,” Anwar told a media conference later.

The allegation surfaced as the revitalized opposition under Anwar was making moves to engineer parliamentary defections aimed at bringing down Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s government.

The politcal events weighed on Malaysia’s financial markets, with foreign exchange dealers saying they suspected the central bank had stepped in to support the ringgit currency against the dollar.

“Seems foreigners are not willing to touch this currency in the short term until political news is gone,” one Kuala Lumpur dealer said.

Malaysian share prices closed down 1.0 percent yesterday, on concerns over heightened political tension and rising oil prices, dealers said.

The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index dropped 11.74 points to 1,174.83, with 471 declining stocks outnumbering 171 advancers.

“Investors are turning cautious and are likely to remain on the sidelines amid current political uncertainty,” one dealer said.

Anwar, who took refuge in the Turkish embassy for 36 hours until Monday evening fearing for his security, said the new allegation was a conspiracy to thwart his return to parliament.

His lawyers filed a defamation suit against his accuser.

His political party says the aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, was planted in their camp by people close to the ruling National Front.

Anwar said he had planned to announce this week he would contest a parliamentary by-election. Winning a seat would be the first step on the road to his ambition of leading the opposition to power for the first time in Malaysian history.
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