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Anwar cites medical report to claim innocence

SINGAPORE: Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday cited a “leaked hospital report” and dismissed as “baseless and politically motivated” accusations that he sexually assaulted his male aide.

In Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Anwar said he could “no longer be distracted by such nuisances” and would “move ahead with the reform agenda, which the Malaysian people endorsed in the last elections.” Now on bail, after being arrested and medically examined, he is to report to the police on August 18. There was no indication how the “leaked report,” pertaining to the “first” medical examination of his former aide and complainant, surfaced in the public domain.

However, Home Minister Hamid Albar insisted the allegation would still need to be “investigated,” even if the complainant were to be regarded as just an ordinary citizen. Mr. Anwar, acquitted and freed in 2004 after being sentenced and imprisoned on a similar charge, dubbed the new charge as an attempt to “assassinate [his] character and derail the people’s aspirations for a transformational change.”

And, the “failure of the police to disclose [the leaked] medical report all but confirms their intention to frame me,” he added.

The “desperate attempt” by the authorities to force him to give a DNA sample could be seen as “a last-ditch effort to build a case where none exists.”

During the medical test after his detention a fortnight ago, he refused to give a blood sample, on the ground that his DNA profiling was done when he was arrested in 1998 on a similar charge.

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