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THE CORRIDORS OF POWER REPORT ON THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ANWAR’S BEATING Part 2
"I was escorted by hundreds of police officers, not two, and seven to eight were close around me," said Anwar Ibrahim in his testimony at the Royal Commission of Inquiry in early 1999. "They escorted me to a van outside the house and I pleaded with them to allow all my children to join me in the van. They allowed but one was left behind." "In the van, I was seated behind the police driver and the police officer. Beside me was Azizah, and behind me were my five children. I was not handcuffed." "For about, I think five minutes, six minutes, the van stopped. And then I was asked to get down. And they asked me to get into the patrol car behind the van. They put me in the back seat." "Before that I again pleaded with the OCPD Brickfields. I said, "Look, let me say goodbye to my wife and my children". And they said to me, "You can do that later"." "On the way the Inspector politely said to me, "I am sorry Dato, I have been ordered to cover your eyes"." "I took off my specs and submitted to being blindfolded. I did not resist or protest, and just submitted myself to being blindfolded." "And so we moved on, until I arrived at the foyer. They told me it was Bukit Aman (Police Headquarters)." "Then the car stopped and I was taken out of the car. I was (still) blindfolded, but not handcuffed. And then I was led by my hand by some people." "I could sense that I was in a building with hundreds of people because you could hear the police boots." "Eventually they took me to a place where they left me seated on a cement slab. Shortly thereafter, I was handcuffed with my hands behind my back. Then I was left alone for some time." "I heard a number of footsteps outside. At that time, I was alone in my cell. I was seated on the cement slab." "I stood up, just a matter of seconds afterwards, there was a big hard box, punch. A strong hard punch above my eye on my left forehead, and I fell backwards onto the cement slab." "Then my hand was grabbed. Somebody pulled my hand and pulled me up." "There was no kicking. There was a heavy blow on the top right of my head, another one on the left top of my head, and the karate-like chop on my left neck, and then I felt like a punch on my right upper arm." "And then, hard, strong left and right slaps. Left, more towards my ear and right, more towards front side of face near the mouth." "From the footsteps, I was quite certain that there were at least two people inside the cell or lockup, and one or two others outside, immediately outside the door of the cell." "I heard the ‘berdehem’ (clearing of the throat) from this person who was coming into the cell. The berdehem sounded familiar to me. Even at that time I knew it was Tan Sri Rahim Noor (the Inspector General of Police)." "The assault took a few minutes. It ended abruptly in the sense that I can hear the "oh" and "ah", of people being pulled or pushed away." "After I felt the sound of people pulled away, there was no longer any assault. I was already down (on the floor). I was feeling groggy, weak and was already bleeding from my nose." "Later on, some personnel came into the cell and removed the blindfold and handcuffs. Then they left me in that condition until late that night." "I was in a state of semi-consciousness. Very weak. And certainly a bit disoriented because the strike on my head was a bit severe." "All this while, when the assault took place, I was blindfolded and handcuffed with my hand behind my back." To be continued tomorrow.
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