He will not forgive, less forget - he was kidnapped, tortured and forced by the police to make a false confession of "allowing himself to be sodomised" by ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim and subsequently spent four months in prison.

Six years later, Anwar's former speech writer and close confidant Munawar A Anees is still bitter about how he was forced to play his part in the web of intrigue which eventually led to Anwar's downfall.

"I do not subscribe to the notion that 'I need to clear my name' simply because I have not done anything wrong to smear my name. On the contrary, it is the Malaysian judiciary that needs to clear its name...," said 57-year-old Anees in an e-mail interview with malaysiakini .

"They (the judiciary) are the ones who are hiding behind this or that legal parlance. They are the ones in dire need of establishing their credibility as an institution of the society that is free from influence and corruption."

Anees, a Pakistani-born author who is a biologist by training and a distinguished Islamic intellectual, was detained under the draconian Internal Security Act on Sept 14, 1998 - two weeks after Anwar was sacked from his deputy prime minister's post by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

According to a statutory declaration which Anees wrote later, he was systematically stripped of all self-respect, degraded and his will and resistance broken down by his captors through endless interrogation.

Five days later, he appeared in court "a shivering shell of a man willing to do anything to stop the destruction of my being" and 'confessed' to allowing Anwar to sodomise him at the former minister's house in March 1993. He was sentenced to six months' jail.

Detailed account

His 55-page statutory declaration chillingly detailed a litany of abuses by the police - how he was handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped naked, put into an animal cage, shaven bald, interrogated, humiliated, drugged, deprived of sleep, physically abused and blackmailed to make a false confession.

"What mainstream media in Malaysia has dared to reproduce my statutory declaration and then proceeded to investigate its truth? None," he said.

Anees was obviously referring to the trial by media in days leading up to Anwar's arrest where the 'confession' of the ex-DPM's adopted brother, Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja ( photo ), and the affidavit of key accuser Azizan Abu Bakar were prominently published.

Sukma - who was similarly detained by the police and forced to confess about his involvement with Anwar in sodomising Azizan - was sentenced to six years' jail and four strokes of rotan (cane).

On that same day, Anees was also in court and both were sent to Kajang prison together, sharing the same handcuffs. Like Anees, Sukma later retracted his 'confession'.

Meanwhile, Azizan was to be the star witness in Anwar's trial, but his credibility was severely questioned by the Federal Court in the recent judgment which quashed the former deputy premier's sodomy conviction. The court also accepted Sukma's contention that his confession was made under duress.

Anees said he was perhaps the first ISA detainee to have written a detailed account that "duly incriminated those who abducted me from my home, kept me in detention, violated all my rights, tortured me, threatened me, brainwashed me and extracted a totally false 'confession' from me".

"Has the Malaysian police given a rebuttal to that declaration or denied the facts stated therein? Has the Malaysian judiciary examined and questioned the validity of my statements? Not at all. So why this curious silence?"

Nobel Prize nomination

Anees, who has written half-a-dozen books primarily on bio-ethics and the relationship between Islam and science, left Malaysia after serving his sentence in early 1999, and is now living in Paris with his Algerian-born wife Nadia and their two children - daughter Aisha and son Omran.

But before he left the country, Anees filed an appeal against his sodomy conviction.

In the end, while Sukma's 'confession' was used to nail Anwar in court, the Anees 'confession' was immaterial. Three years ago, the prosecution voluntary withdrew the remaining five charges against Anwar, one of which was a sodomy charge that had implicated Anees.

Last September, the High Court dismissed Anees' appeal on the ground that he failed to appear at any of the court proceedings. But two days after the judgment, Anees filed a second appeal through his lawyer Balwant Singh Sidhu, this time to the Court of Appeal.

Balwant told malaysiakini that the appellate court had yet to set a hearing date.

Meanwhile, lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who is also representing Anees, said his request to the attorney-general for an assurance that his client would not be subjected to harassment by the authorities should he appear in court had been rejected.

While Anees vowed to not let up in his bid to clear his name, he argued that he did not need exoneration as badly as those who had committed the crimes against him.

"I was, and am, innocent. I committed no crime. On the contrary, crimes were committed against me and my family and my friends in Malaysia. I am not in need of any vindication whatsoever by a court of law that was a willing partner and an architect of an array of unlawful acts against me and my family," he said.

"It is the Malaysian government that is under obligation to tell the world why its operatives committed excesses against me and my family. It is the Malaysian police that ought to be begging for rehabilitation of the conduct of its employees. It is the supine media in Malaysia that needs to stand up to the ethical demands of the profession."

The ex-ISA detainee, who is widely regarded as a leading progressive social and scientific voice in the Islamic world, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago. He is currently a consultant to Washington think-tank John Templeton Foundation.

Brighter prospects

Anees had not been back in Malaysia since he left six years ago.

"Till the time Mahathir maintained his iron grip over Malaysia, the idea of a visit did not sit well with me. My own health did not permit me to undertake such a long flight.

"Moreover, for the fear of repetition of the ghastly events, I postponed my travel and hoped for better days. Now with Prime Minister (Abdullah Ahmad) Badawi's government firmly in place, Anwar out as a free man, prospects for a visit to Malaysia look brighter."

He is prepared to travel to Malaysia - if his personal safety is guaranteed - should there be some hope for a tangible resolution to the court case in overturning his sodomy conviction.

"Frankly speaking, while I desire to visit Malaysia ... I have a deep-seated fear about my personal safety. What if another plot unfolds and I'm held hostage yet again?"

Anees has good reasons to feel so - after all, he is accusing the all-powerful police force of torture and other gross abuses.

Nevertheless, he and his wife look forward to the opportunity to visit Kuala Lumpur.

"We have enchanting memories of over a decade spent in Malaysia," said Anees.

"We would like to revive old friendships. We would like to make new friends. Above all, we would like to personally acknowledge to those who stood in our support at a time when we were brutalised, tortured, and victimised for political ends."

Remember victims of Sept 98 hysteria: Munawar Anees