Saturday July 26, 2008
Respect laws of Malaysia when talking about Anwar, foreigners told
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia hopes that other countries, in commenting on allegations of sodomy against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, will respect Malaysia’s sovereignty as a country with its own set of laws.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Malaysian Government would always act in accordance with the country’s laws.
He was responding to recent statements by US leaders and international personalities criticising Malaysia for arresting Anwar on July 16, after attending the National Academic Awards 2007 event yesterday.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Malaysia to be transparent and follow the rule of law in dealing with the sodomy accusation against Anwar.
Rejecting Malaysia’s claim that the Anwar case was an internal affair, she also said the United States would continue to speak about cases that it “thinks needs to be thought about in terms of the political circumstances.”
Yesterday, former Canadian prime minister Paul Martin, former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn and former head of the International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus issued a joint statement asking Malaysia to drop the sodomy charges against Anwar.
The three said the charges were brought “in spite of the fact that similar unsubstantiated charges filed 10 years ago against him were overturned by the Supreme Court.”
He also hoped “the government of Malaysia will ... demonstrate, by dropping the charges ... an exemplary sense of respect for the rights of the individual which are so important to the international standing of Malaysia.”
The three reiterated their “full confidence in his (Anwar’s) moral integrity.”
On whether the police would release the close-circuit-television footage of Anwar in the lock-up to show that he was treated well while in detention, Abdullah declined to comment as it was a police matter.
Besides, the investigations were incomplete, he said.
“I would not want to say what they need to do or what they need to look into. I leave it entirely to the police. Their investigation is their responsibility and they should know what to do,” he added.
A news portal reported on Wednesday that the Home Ministry was considering releasing the CCTV footage to dispel accusations that police had mistreated Anwar during his overnight stay in the lock-up.
In Malacca, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said that Rice should look at the United States itself before criticising another country’s legal system.
“We are transparent as we are bringing him (Anwar) to court,” he said.
He said that this was unlike the American treatment of Guantanamo detainees, some of whom had been detained without trial and subjected to abuses he described as “inhuman.”
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