Anwar Ibrahim, who is fighting a sodomy charge, has asked the police to determine if his accuser Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan has violated the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA).

NONE In a police report lodged today at the beat-base at the Kuala Lumpur court complex in Jalan Duta, Anwar (right) , 63, also named DPP Farah Azlina Latif as a party to the alleged breach of the law.

This is based on an allegation that surfaced on website Malaysia Today , claiming that Saiful and Farah had a ‘romantic relationship’. Neither have commented publicly on the claim to date.

Lawyers Sankara Nair and Param Cumaraswamy accompanied Anwar in making the report, to which he attached the affidavit he had earlier filed in the KL High Court as part of a notice to strike out the sodomy charge.

Anwar said Farah and Saiful should be respectively investigated under Section 8(1) and 8(2) of the OSA. These concern wrongful communication of documents classified secret, such as investigation papers and statements recorded from witnesses.

Section 8(1) concerns a person in possession of such documents and who has communicated the contents to another. Sub-section (2) concerns a person receiving such information. Both offences are punishable with mandatory imprisonment of between one and seven years.

NONE In the affidavit, Anwar alleged that Farah was privy to investigation papers in the sodomy trial, and that Saiful (left) knew the contents of these before he was examined and cross-examined.

Saiful could have gained access to the investigation papers, he said, including his (Anwar’s) statement recorded by the police under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code and other related documents including CCTV recordings and investigation diaries.

Other possible documents could have been the reports of specialists, including the chemist and three Kuala Lumpur Hospital doctors Dr Khairul Nizam Hassan, Dr Mohd Razali Ismail and Dr Siew Sheue Feng.

Anwar alleged that Farah and the rest of the prosecution team had briefed Saiful on his (Anwar’s) statement to the police, and that this constitutes a violation of Section 8 of the OSA.    

He said it was patently clear that Saiful had access and knowledge to all witness statements recorded by the police officers, and also knew about the prosecution’s briefings and strategies.

Anwar said all this has raised questions about the integrity and impartiality of the prosecution, which “has been compromised”.

Syariah Court next?

He has also instructed his Syarie lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamaruddin to study the allegation and to decide if a complaint should be filed in the Syariah Court about the alleged affair.

“But since this case relates to the criminal matter, I have lodged this report first,” he told reporters.

Anwar is involved in a qazaf (bearing false witness) application through which he is seeking to have the religious authorities charge Saiful with lying about the sodomy allegation.

Prosecution head and solicitor-general II Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, in his reply to Sankara last Friday, had stated that the attorney-general’s chambers cannot verify the alleged affair, but that it is being investigated internally.