The opposition leader did not take calls to comment on Australia’s The Sun-Herald report but responded via his Twitter micro-blogging account when queried.
“Source? Polis SB Msia. Bukti tak ada (Who is the source? Malaysian police special branch. There is no proof whatsoever)” Anwar replied.
In an earlier reply, the former deputy prime minister wrote, “Source? Msian SB ha ha”
The WikiLeaks expose dominated Twitter in Malaysia today, with politicians from Barisan Nasional (BN) immediately responding to the claims.
“It was a set-up, it seems but the target couldn’t resist the bait, thus...” tweeted MCA central committee member Datuk Ti Lian Ker.
The PKR de facto leader did not respond to The Malaysian Insider, which earlier picked up The Sun-Herald’s exclusive from WikiLeaks of a leaked US State Department cable that revealed “Singaporean intelligence officials told their Australian counterparts that Anwar engaged in the conduct for which he is accused, a claim he has steadfastly denied”.
“Australia’s Office of National Assessments also states the conduct was the result of entrapment by Mr Anwar’s enemies,” reported the newspaper, which is part of the Sydney Morning Herald group.
The WikiLeaks website has promised to release some 250,000 diplomatic cables from United States that reveal explosive private views across the world. Nearly 1,000 are said to be related to Malaysia, including candid observations about Putrajaya’s refusal to co-operate on several fronts.
WikiLeaks was founded by Australian journalist Julian Assange, now being held by the Scotland Yard for sexual assault charges in Sweden. Australian commentators have compared Assange’s charges to Anwar, who was sacked as deputy prime minister in September 1998 on sodomy and corruption charges.
US President Barack Obama has called the WikiLeaks’ actions “deplorable” in phone calls to his counterparts who agreed that it should not hurt ties with Washington. US diplomats in Kuala Lumpur have also expressed the same sentiment to Wisma Putra although they have also made their concerns known about Anwar’s sodomy trial.
The cable that dealt with Anwar’s sodomy case was dated November 2008 and said: “The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligences services and [Singaporean elder statesman] Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ‘did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted’.”
ONA stands for Australia’s Office of National Assessments.
The document also stated the Singaporeans told ONA they made this assessment on the basis of “technical intelligence”, which was likely to relate to intercepted communications, the newspaper said.
“ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set-up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway’,” the cable states.
Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia and carries a jail sentence of up to 20 years. Anwar was jailed for six years in 1999 on charges of corruption and sodomy but was later freed in 2004.
His former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan complained of sodomy in June 2008 but Anwar had maintained the case against him was fabricated and trumped up by his political enemies who fear his political resurgence.
Saiful, a university dropout, had admitted to meeting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak before making his complaint but said the meeting was about a scholarship.
Anwar’s sodomy trial has been postponed to next year but a prosecutor was earlier dropped after she was accused of having an affair with the 25-year- old Saiful. - Malaysian Insider
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.