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FAC News -
Tuesday, May 28, 2002 9:40 AM
THE
ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ANWAR’S BEATING
Anwar’s
arrest had been planned earlier
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
ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ANWAR’S BEATING
- previous reports
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