Lawyer recalls 'torture, forced confession' of Anwar's ex-speechwriter

A senior lawyer recounted how his client Munawar Aness, who was Anwar Ibrahim's former speechwriter, was allegedly tortured and forced to confess to having sex against the order of nature.

Testifying at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today, Manjeet Singh Dhillion said Munawar is still traumatised by the experience.

Manjeet, 74, who was called as Anwar's witness in his defamation suit against Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, testified that he recorded what Munawar said after visiting him about eight times in prison.

The statements became part of a statutory declaration which Munawar signed in 1998, added the former Malaysian Bar president.

“Munawar is my client and he wanted his trauma recorded. His narration of events began from the point of his arrest on Sept 14, 1998, and continued in great depths and detail over what was done to him night and day during the interrogation by the police, right up to the point where he was taken to court and forced to plead guilty.

“I wrote down everything he said. His recollection of events was clear, comprehensive and precise. Wherever possible he named names, identified events and acts he was forced to perform. He wanted to place before the court his torture, abuse and humiliation by his interrogators,” said Manjeet.

In a witness statement tendered in court, he said Munawar described how he was allegedly shaved bald, stripped of his identity, and then systematically humiliated, brainwashed, interrogated, drugged and tortured into making a false confession.

“Munawar detailed every step and move by the special branch and police officers and even identified the officers involved,” he added.

Munawar pleaded guilty in court under Section 377D for an offence against the order of nature with Anwar and was sentenced to six months jail.

He wanted to appeal against the conviction and sentence, and hence made the statutory declaration which was tendered in court today, marked only as an identification following objections by Khairy's counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Anwar's lawyers, Sivarasa Rasiah, J Leela and Shahid Adli Kamarudin, and Shafee would later submit on the admissibility of the statutory declaration to be marked as evidence.

[More to follow]

A chilling statutory declaration

-Mkini