Police officer identified in Anwar smear campaign

PKR says the police, at a seminar, did not touch on security matters but went on a tirade against Anwar.

PETALING JAYA: PKR today presented more details of a senior police officer from Bukit Aman who is said to have started on a smear campaign against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

At a seminar on security matters organised by the Bachok education department in Kelantan, the police officer did not touch on security aspects but instead went on a tirade against Anwar, claimed PKR deputy president Azmin Ali at a press conference today.

The seminar was held on Feb 19 and officiated by the Deputy Finance Minister, Awang Adek Hussein.

Azmin said that the senior police officer who was the key speaker did not touch on national security but instead focused on the sex video.

Last Friday party vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar and communications director, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad alleged that a senior police officer based in Bukit Aman was lecturing slanderous material about Anwar to a group of teachers .

Today at the press conference, Azmin revealed the name of the officer as Abdul Rahman Ismail, the chief assistant director of the research and sectariat unit of Bukit Aman.

He also showed a picture of the man and the seminar’s itinerary.

“This shows that Umno is in a desperate situation because they are forced to use government institutions to reach their goals,” he said.

He also questioned why educators were “being dragged to listen to Umno’s slander through a high official from the police?”.

Azmin claimed the senior official had said that it was Anwar who was the one in the sex video.

“How can the police perform an unbiased investigation when their senior officers are involved in such disgusting allegations?” he asked

Azmin claimed that the organization committee for the event consists of officers from Malaysian Police Force, the National Security Council (MKN) and the Bachok education department.

Azmin also claimed that there were four series of lectures which involved the participation of 2,000 headmasters and teachers from the whole of Kelantan. It was mandatory for each school to send the headmaster and eight other teachers.

Officer wrongly named on Friday

Azmin also urged the IGP and his deputy to answer these allegations honestly so that the miss use of government servants for political ends can be prevented.

The itinerary showed that there were four objectives, one of which was to increase awareness of security matters to teachers.

Another objective was to prevent teachers from falling prey to allegations made by certain quarters and to increase cooperation between the police force and teachers in Bachok.

The party said that it has yet to bring the matter up with the police and is still discussing what to do next as the matter is still developing .

Nik Nazmi who was also at the press conference said on Friday they identified the man as Isa Abdul Rahman and the police responded by saying that there was no senior officer by that name.

However Nik Nazmi believed that they have identified the right individual this time as it is the same name in the programme’s itinerary.