Saiful Bukhari, too, should be investigated, says DAP

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng (right) and his his assistant, Chuah Chew Huat, at the Sentul police station, Kuala Lumpur, after lodging a police report against Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan today. Saiful was the complainant in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's Sodomy II case. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Mukhriz Hazim, February 12, 2015.

DAP is pushing the police to investigate Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and asked why was the complainant in the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's Sodomy II case not charged with consensual sodomy.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said this follows a statement by Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong yesterday who said that “glaring anomalies” in Anwar's conviction for sodomy was feeding suspicion that his case was one of political persecution rather than criminal prosecution.

Leong also said that the charge against Anwar was based on a provision of the Penal Code that has rarely been used.

Lim and his supporters today went to the Sentul police station in Kuala Lumpur to lodge a police report against Saiful, asking the authorities to launch an immediate investigation.

"I give the police 24 hours to take legal action against Saiful.

"I want them to also answer whether there are elements of complicity or vice versa. If not, then this is a victimless case," he said after lodging the report.

Yesterday, Leong reportedly said it was notable that Anwar was not charged under Section 377C of the Penal Code with forced sodomy or sodomy rape, although there might appear to have been some allegations of coercion made in the proceedings.

Section 377C, which provides for sodomy rape offences, states that whoever voluntarily commits sodomy “on another person without the consent, or against the will, of the other person, or by putting the other person in fear of death or hurt to the person or any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years and not more than twenty years, and shall also be liable to whipping”.

"It may be said that Anwar has been convicted of an offence, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, and will be disqualified from being an MP with respect to a charge that seems, on its face, to be a victimless offence.

"This has also given rise to questions or concerns as to why the complainant, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who was alleged to have been a participant in the act of sodomy, was not charged for abetment under Sections 377A and 377B, read together with Section 109 of the Penal Code," Leong had said.

The Federal Court yesterday found Anwar guilty of sodomising his former aide Saiful in a condominium unit at Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, on June 26, 2008.

Anwar was handed a five-year jail term.

In the summary of his judgment, Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria found that claims of political conspiracy by the defence team remained an unsubstantiated allegation.

He also agreed with the High Court and Court of Appeal that Saiful was a credible witness.

- TMI