Chan Kok Leong | Jul 4, 08 3:27pm
Dr Mahathir Mohamad has weighed in on the debate of whether his former protege has ever engaged in homosexual practices in a blog entry today.
In a posting on chedet.com this afternoon, the former premier said that all 10 judges who presided over the sodomy trials had found evidence of homosexual acts involving Anwar Ibrahim and his adopted brother Sukma Darmawan Sasmita Atmadja.
“Many believe that after the Federal Court had rejected the charges brought against Anwar, it means that he is innocent and hence freed,” said Mahathir.
“But what I wish to point out is that only two out of the three judges had rejected the charges. Moreover, the judgment should be read carefully.”
In the posting entitled “Anwar”, the former prime minister reproduced a paragraph of the judgment.
“Even though reading the appeal record, we find evidence to confirm that the appellants (Anwar dan Sukma) were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen sometime, this court, as a court of law, may only convict the appellants if the prosecution has successfully proved that the alleged offences as stated in the charge, beyond reasonable doubt.”
During Mahathir’s administration, Anwar, who had fallen out with his boss, was charged with corruption and unnatural sex in 1998.
This culminated in a conviction of six and nine years for corruption and sodomy respectively.
However, in 2004 a panel of three Federal Court judges overturned his sodomy conviction by 2 to 1, citing contradictions in the prosecution’s case.
Current Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad and Tengku Baharudin Shah Tengku Mahmud found for Anwar while Rahmah Hussain dissented.
‘Let the courts decide’
Mahathir said that it was clear from the above extract that the judges were of the opinion that Anwar had engaged in homosexual acts.
But they had to overturn the conviction as a result of technicalities, he added.
“The technicalities may not be known to most people but what is clear is that the judges believed that he had engaged in those acts.
“So if we weigh in all the judges have who presided over his sodomy case, we find that only two (on technicalities) out of the 10 judges were of the opinion that he did not sodomise Azizan Abu Bakar,” Mahathir wrote.
Azizan was the former driver of Anwar’s wife and current PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Hence, Mahathir said, the conclusion of certain quarters that Anwar is innocent is not altogether true.
“Nevertheless, we now have a new case and we must leave it to the courts to decide what took place,” he added.
“From the outset, Wan Azizah has cast her doubts on the judicial integrity in Malaysia to try this case. But where was her outcry when they (Malaysian judges) overturned his conviction?
“What will she then say if the judges find that Anwar had sodomised Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan but declares him not guilty because of technicalities?” asked Mahathir.
Malaysia News Today 