|
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER REPORT ON THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ANWAR’S BEATING Part 12
On 20 September 1998, Anwar Ibrahim was arrested under Malaysia’s infamous and dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) after leading the biggest demonstration in the nation’s history. The official reason? Because he was a threat to national security, say the authority - so they had to arrest him. That same night, Anwar was beaten up in what doctors who testified at the Royal Commission of Inquiry from 22 February to 4 March 1999 say could have resulted in death. However, the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Dato Yaacob Md Amin, testified at the Inquiry that the decision to arrest Anwar was made one week before the actual arrest, and, according to Dato Yaacob, Anwar was arrested under Section 377 of the Penal Code - not under the ISA. Yesterday, we revealed that Dato Yaacob testified that, after they had beaten up Anwar, they went up to the 30th floor of the Police Headquarters at Bukit Aman for a meeting. “At that meeting, it was decided that Dato Seri Anwar is to be arrested under the Internal Security Act,” said Dato Yaacob. “There was no discussion regarding what happened to Dato Seri Anwar in the cell.” “The decision was made based on the circumstances that had happened in the area of Masjid Negara, Dataran Merdeka, PWTC and at Seri Perdana.” “There were demonstrations at this area.” “I was informed that Dato Seri Anwar has played an important role in starting this situation.” If Anwar was arrested under the ISA because he had led the largest demonstration in Malaysia’s history, how could the decision to arrest him have been made one week before that, when even Anwar himself did not know yet, at that time, that there was going to be a demonstration? Clearly, the demonstration was just the convenient excuse to arrest Anwar. Without or without the demonstration, Anwar would have been arrested anyway, as Dato Yaacob’s testimony revealed.
 |
The Blogs 
