Leaked medical report fans Anwar controversy

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — A leaked medical report from a private hospital is sure to inject more controversy into police investigations that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had sexually assaulted a former male aide.

According to a copy of the report from Hospital Pusrawi, a government-linked institution which caters mainly to Muslims, the examining doctor said there was no evidence of sodomy after treating Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Saiful, 23, created a political storm when he made a police report on June 28 saying he had been sodomised by Anwar.

Saiful visited the hospital just hours before he lodged the police report. He claimed he was sexually assaulted on June 26.

Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid's diagnosis stated "TRO Assault (sodomise)", or to rule out assault, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Straits Times. The doctor advised Saiful, a former aide to Anwar, to go to a government hospital for a second opinion, the report stated.

The medical report was first raised by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin on his website. Anwar's wife said it proved that her husband was innocent.

"It is a confirmation that it is a conspiracy all along as this report goes to prove Anwar's innocence," Datin Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told the Malaysiakini online newspaper.

Home Minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar yesterday declined to comment on the blogger's posting. "You cannot have a trial before a trial, and a trial in the media and the Internet. I think that is not a very healthy position," he told Reuters.

Deputy police chief Ismail Omar told the New Straits Times newspaper that the purported documents were an attempt to sabotage police investigations and confuse people.

Police, he said, were considering investigating Malaysiakini and Raja Petra's website over the reports.

Anwar, who has launched a serious challenge to dislodge the Barisan Nasional coalition government, suffered a setback in his political campaign after Saiful filed the police report. Anwar has denied the allegation, maintaining that Saiful is a pawn in a political conspiracy.

Days before Saiful filed his police complaint against Anwar, he went to see Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Najib has publicly acknowledged that he did meet Saiful, but said he offered the young man no advice on what to do.

Saiful's lawyer, Zamri Idrus, told The Straits Times that he and his client could not comment on the medical report because of the ongoing police investigation.

Azlan Arshad, a senior administrative executive at Hospital Pusrawi, said in a telephone interview that the hospital records showed that Saiful was examined by Dr Mohamed Osman on June 28 at around 2pm, as stated in the report.

But he declined to comment on the contents of the report.

Dr Mohamed, a Myanmar Muslim medical practitioner who joined the hospital last year, is away on leave.

-TMI