AsiaMedia :: MALAYSIA: ACA avoids video clip showdown with Anwar

AsiaMedia :: MALAYSIA: ACA avoids video clip showdown with Anwar
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MALAYSIA: ACA avoids video clip showdown with Anwar
Anwar Ibrahim tells journalists and supporters anti-graft officials cancelled
meeting on the way to see him
<http://www.straitstimes.com/> The Straits Times Friday, October 26, 2007
By Hazlin Hassan
KUALA LUMPUR --- Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said anti-graft officials who
had threatened to arrest him yesterday over a controversial video clip cancelled
an arranged meeting, defusing tensions over the issue.
About 100 journalists and supporters who had gone to his Petaling Jaya office to
witness the arrest instead listened to his taunts against the government.
'The government's attempt to intimidate me has failed,' Datuk Seri Anwar told
reporters.
He said ACA officers had called to cancel the meeting while they were on their
way to meet him.
No reason was given and they said another date would be fixed.
'It is clear to me that the issuance of the notice was politically motivated in
a futile attempt to create a basis for a potential prosecution,' he said.
Datuk Seri Anwar said that the ACA had warned him that he could face arrest
yesterday if he did not release an extended version of the clip.
The eight-minute video clip is a hot political potato for the government.
A human rights lawyer plans to submit a rare public petition to the Malaysian
King today to ask for an independent probe.
The clip has triggered public speculation over corruption and abuse of power in
the promotion and demotion of Malaysian judges.
Datuk Seri Anwar, the defacto leader of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat,
raised an outcry when he released the video clip last month.
It purportedly shows a senior lawyer speaking on the phone to a top judge,
boasting about using his political connections to secure senior appointments for
judges.
Datuk Seri Anwar has refused to give the ACA the full version of the 14-minute
clip, saying that it showed the whistleblower.
The Bar Council, which groups all lawyers, has marched to the Prime Minister's
Office to ask for a full investigation.
Meanwhile, the lawyer who plans to file the petition to the King, Mr Haris
Ibrahim, said he was doing so 'to stop the rot in the judiciary and to return
the judiciary to the people'.
He had garnered 4,934 signatures as of yesterday for the campaign to push the
King to set up an independent commission.
The government has set up its own panel to look into whether the video clip is
authentic, but critics say the panel is toothless because it has no power to
subpoena witnesses.
Date Posted: 10/26/2007
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