Anifah files additional defence in case against Anwar
(Daily Express) – Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman has filed an additional defence that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had offered him cash to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and in turn, bring down the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2008.
Despite facing a defamation suit by Anwar, Anifah, who is Kimanis MP, has also included in the statement of defence that the PKR de facto leader was of bad character and tarnished reputation even before filing the suit against him in May 2009.
Anifah’s application would be heard before judicial commissioner Siti Khadijah S. Hassan Badjenid on January 5.
Meanwhile, lawyer Latheefa Koya, who is in Anwar’s legal team, said his client would contest the application by Anifah.
On November 27, Anifah told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that businessman Datuk Ishak Ismail, a close associate of Anwar, had offered him RM100 million to bring 10 members of Parliaments from Sabah to join PR and topple the BN federal government.
The foreign minister had said he felt cheap when the offer was made by Ishak, a former KFC deputy executive chairman at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel.
“I warned Ishak not to repeat those words to me. I was angry because the offer was made to a three-term MP,” he said when re-examined by his lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
Anifah said he had gone to the hotel to smoke cigar with two other MPs from Sabah, including Ronald Kiandee, who is now the Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker.
“Ishak approached me and made the offer and I was taken aback because I was committed to remain in BN in the interest of Sabah,” he had said.
This piece of evidence was not included by Anifah when he filed his defence in 2009 where he had only stated that he was offered the post of Deputy Prime Minister.
Anifah in his application to amend his defence said the 2004 majority Federal Court judgment which acquitted Anwar of sodomising his wife’s driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, had remarked on the former deputy Prime Minister’s sexual inclination.
The judgment said: “We find evidence to confirm that the appellants (Anwar and Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja) were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa (in Kuala Lumpur) did happen, sometimes…”
Sukma Darmawan is Anwar’s adopted brother who was jointly charged with him on the sodomy charge.
In March this year, Anwar failed in his attempt to expunge the case before a five-man Federal Court bench, and panel chairman Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin said there was sufficient evidence on record to justify the comment.
Anifah also brought to attention that Anwar was convicted of corruption in 1999 and was sentenced to six years in jail.
He also said that Anwar was convicted by the Court of Appeal on March 7 of sodomising his one-time aide, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail but is out on bail pending the outcome of his appeal before the Federal Court which heard his case in October.
Anwar had filed a RM100 million suit against Anifah whom he claimed had uttered defamatory words about him during a news conference in Washington with former United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Anifah had told reporters that Anwar had offered him the post of deputy prime minister if he brought MPs from the state to tople the BN government which had won 140 seats in the 2008 general election.
In his statement of claim, Anwar alleged that Anifah’s claims were baseless, unfounded and grossly negligent and had been widely reported in the local and foreign media.
