Ex-police chief released early for good behaviour
(AFP) Former police chief Rahim Noor, who was jailed for two months for assaulting jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim, has won an early release for good behaviour.
One opposition leader today described Rahim, who was freed Saturday after serving 40 days in Kajang prison, as "a walking symbol of injustice" in Malaysia.
The then-police chief attacked a handcuffed and blindfolded Anwar in a cell on Sept 20, 1998, the night the ex-deputy premier was arrested.
The black eye which Anwar suffered has since appeared on countless opposition posters.
Rahim was ordered jailed for two months in March last year after prosecutors reduced the original charge against him. He was free on bail for over a year until the appeal court confirmed the sentence in April.
Officials have said a one-third remission of sentence for good behaviour is normal.
Anwar is serving a total of 15 years after being convicted of abuse of power and sodomy. He says he was framed to avert a political challenge to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an allegation denied by the government.
Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said the lenient sentence on Rahim had engendered a widespread feeling that justice was not fully done.
This feeling "can only be aggravated with Rahim Noor walking around as a free man while Anwar is condemned to the Sugai Buloh prison for 15 years," Lim said in a statement.
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