PKR lawyers to sue Rahimi for criminal defamation

Malaysia Chronicle

PKR lawyers - accused of having forced Rahimi Osman the former aide of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to sign two statutory declarations - will issue letters of demand to him to retract his statement or face a criminal defamation suit.

According to one of the lawyers, Latheefa Koya, a letter of demand will also be sent to one of media which had "twisted the facts" when reporting a press conference called by Rahimi on Wednesday.

"We will send the letters of demand within the next 24 hours. After that he will have another 24 hours to retract his statement and apologise," Malaysiakini reported Latheefa as saying during a press conference at the PKR headquarters.

Rahimi gave police the info before even telling PKR

Rahimi

The 25-year old Rahimi had lodged a police report on Wednesday, claiming that he was made to sign under duress two statutory declarations on June 28, 2008 that implicated Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife in the ongoing sodomy trial against Anwar.

Rahimi named Latheefa - who is also PKR information chief - and another lawyer Saiful Izham Ramli - who is the Kedah PKR Youth chief - as the ones who had coerced him into signing the statutory declarations.

However, Latheefa claimed that Rahimi “voluntarily” co-operated with Anwar's defence team when signing the declarations at the Quality Hotel in Klang two years ago.

“Rahimi’s allegations that the statutory declarations were amended to include the names of Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor without his consent is completely untrue and without any credibility at all," Malaysian Insider reported Latheefa as saying.

“This is because in his own statement given to the police at [Bukit Aman] on July 23, 2008 in the afternoon, he has confirmed that he knew that Saiful (Bukhari Azlan) had met Najib and Rosmah.”

As such, Latheefa said Rahimi had revealed the information that was adopted into the statutory declarations only after making it available to the police some five days earlier.

Najib already admitted having met Saiful

Latheefa, herself a prominent human rights lawyer, also pointed that the involvement of some of the personalities in the second round of the sodomy charges pressed against Anwar has already been confirmed during investigations and in the course of the trial.

For example, Najib himself had admitted to having met Saiful Bukhari Azlan - the complainant in Anwar's sodomy case - even though the PM had earlier denied having done so.

“Rahimi shared this information with us after his interview with the police. He also told the police about meeting with Ezam (Md Noor) and SAC Rodwan. Further, these individual’s involvement in the case were confirmed by Saiful Bukhari’s testimony in court. Ezam Md Noor and Mumtaz Jaafar were called in for identification by Saiful," said Latheefa.

Perjury and flimsy evidence

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Sivarasa Rasiah said that Rahimi could be charged for perjury which is a criminal offense.

“He said that he has done a new SD to say that the earlier SDs are false. Now, if that new SD contradicts what he said in the police statement then that is your classic offense of perjury. You can’t get better situation for a perjury offense. That is perjury which is serious criminal offense,” said Siva.

Anwar, the 62-year-old PKR adviser, was accused of sodomizing his former aide Saiful at Unit 11-5-1 of the Desa Damansara Condominium in Jalan Setiakasih, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.

He has denied the charges and accused Najib and Rosmah of collaborating with Saiful to frame him and derail his political comeback.

Due to the flimsiness of the evidence, the case has been sharply criticized by civil society and prominent leaders within Malaysia and overseas. Parliamentarians from Europe to the U.S. and Australia have written to Najib to condemn the trial.

Nobel Laureate and former U.S. vice president Al Gore has also slammed the case. The latest world figure to add to the mountain of criticism against Najib for forcing through the trial is British tycoon Richard Branson.

"I hope the case gets dropped. The case is fundamentally wrong and it does not make Malaysia look good in the world map,'' Richard, the Virgin airlines boss, had told reporters during a trip to Malaysia last month.