'AG Gani had interfered in Anwar's 'black eye' case'

By Rahmah Ghazali

PETALING JAYA: A former top investigating officer today stood firm on his recent claims that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail had fabricated evidence during the 1998 investigation into the “black eye” assault on former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim despite government's assurance that there was no cover-up.

Mat Zain Ibrahim, who was the investigating officer when Anwar was in police custody 12 years ago, penned a second open letter to the Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar today and appealed that the case be reopened.

However, Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that there was no such fabrication of evidence when responding to a question raised by Ipoh Timor DAP MP Lim Kit Siang.

"The police have conducted investigation into the incident in 1998. There was nothing to indicate that false evidence had occurred in the investigation," said Hishammuddin.

But unconvinced, Mat Zaid claimed that such statement was a move to “protect certain individuals” and was contrary to the stand of the police force back then.

"At that time, the police took the stance to conduct the investigation 'without fear or favour', and to 'leave no stone unturned', and 'to get it over with as soon as possible' and there would be no 'cover-up'.

"But the position this time around seems to be as if there is a cover-up to protect certain individuals," he said.

Investigation papers 'lost'

However, Mat Zain gave Hishammuddin the benefit of the doubt, considering that there was lack of reference material that was supposed to be included in the investigation papers of the “black-eye” case.

He revealed that several important documents related to the case were displaced while in the hands of the attorney-general, which had to be replaced with duplicates.

"In fact, the whole investigation papers were 'lost' for about three weeks between Oct 30 and Nov 20, 1998 as I have explained (in my previous letter).

"I am not surprised if the documents are incomplete considering that they have long been concealed in the attorney-general's office," he said.

Mat Zain also asked how and why the "falsified" medical reports, prepared by Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof, could have gone missing when two of the three documents had been used in the Royal Commission of Inquiry in 1999.

"In fact, the two documents were submitted and considered in the proceedings to investigate the 'black-eye' incident in 1999 and the report of the commission has been made public," he said.

He said the documents could not have been overlooked as they totalled 65 pages and not one or two pages long.

Falsification done 'deliberately'

Mat Zain also insisted that the falsification was done “deliberately”.

"I believe the AG is familiar with cases related to counterfeiting – that any fraud is done 'deliberately' and that there is no fraud that is done accidentally.

"I would like to emphasise that all three falsified medical reports were done with careful planning and execution... my investigation diary and its minutes can help identify the relevant sequence of events leading to these falsifications," said Mat Zain.

He claimed that in the commission's proceedings between Feb 22 and March 4, 1999, both Gani and the late former attorney-general Mohtar Abdullah had separately told Rahman to prepare the first two "falsified" medical reports. Gani was the head of the prosecution unit at that time.

"I came to know that the findings in the commission's inquiry had caused Mohtar to panic. He did not know that Gani had already told Rahman to prepare a report earlier.”

According to him, Mohtar would not have asked Rahman to prepare the report if he had known that Gani had already told the doctor to do so.

Mat Zain said that any falsification could be easily detected because the investigation team was watching the case closely.

"... what I can confirm is that Rahman himself requested, even begged, my assistants to seek my co-operation to include a third report to neutralise the first two, which I declined," he claimed.

However, Mat Zain said that when the commission's findings were printed and presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and later declared a public document, it was found that only the second medical report was included.

'No one else has any interest, except Gani'

"To be fair to Gani, I have no information to say that he played a part that caused the report to go missing from the documents. However, I am not surprised if he is involved because no one else has any interest in this matter.

"Nevertheless, I am not worried about the absence of the report because the copies that are in my possession are clear and complete," he said.

Mat Zain also said he would leave the matter to the discretion of the IGP, "to make the best decision for the police that is fair to all parties”.

"However, I reserve my right to continue to pursue the matter or stop," he said.

It was reported recently that the government is expected to decide next week whether Mat Zain's allegations would need a second round of investigation.

Two years ago, Anwar had filed a police report accusing Gani, Mat Zain, former Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan (then investigating officer) and Rahman of falsifying his medical report.

Following the Royal Commission of Inquiry investigation in 1999, the then Inspector-General of Police Rahim Noor had admitted he had assaulted Anwar. He was convicted and sentenced to two month's jail and a fine of RM2,000.