KUALA LUMPUR, APRIL 11: A witness in Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial said Tuesday he had told Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that one of his ministers allegedly drafted a letter accusing the then-deputy premier of sexual misconduct. The Defence is trying to prove that Anwar was framed in a political conspiracy to topple him from office. Mahathir sacked Anwar as deputy premier and Finance Minister in September 1998. Defence witness Azmin Ali gave evidence of a conversation he said he had with Mahathir sometime between 1997 and 1998. Azmin, Anwar's former political secretary, said Mahathir asked him, "Who actually is Ummi?" "I told the PM that she's my own sister." Ummi Hafilda Mohamad Ali and Azizan Abu Bakar set the Anwar saga in motion when they wrote to Mahathir in August 1997 alleging sexual wrongdoing by the powerful deputy premier. Ummi, a now-bankrupt businesswoman, was a principal witness against Anwar in his first trial on charges of abusing his powers to cover up those allegations. In April 1999 he was convicted and jailed for six years. In the current trial, he and his adopted brother Sukma Darmawan are accused of sodomising Azizan, an offence punishable by 20 years in jail. "The PM also asked me why Ummi had written the letter to him," Azmin said. "I told the PM I did not know the actual reason but maybe it could be that I (Azmin) did not help her to get business deals, causing her to be angry with me. "I told the PM that she also used my name to meet corporate leaders. When I got to know this I told them not to involve me and I have nothing to do with her actions." Azmin said he told Mahathir that Megat Junid Megat Ayob, then the Consumer Affairs Minister, had informed him (Azmin) he had offered Ummi "a big project." Azmin added, "I told the Prime minister that Ummi told me that the letter alleging Anwar's wrongdoing was drafted by Megat Junid, and Aziz Shamsuddin had a role in this letter. Mahathir told me he would talk to them and advise them." Aziz Shamsuddin, now deputy education minister, was Mahathir's political secretary at the time. Aziz is fighting a Defence subpoena to testify in the sodomy trial, as is Mahathir, but Megat Junid has dropped his objections to giving evidence. Azmin testified Monday that police, who detained him for a week from September 16, 1998, had stripped him and forced him to confess that he was sodomised by Anwar. He said he initially resisted. "I said to them as a Muslim they can't make such slanderous remarks. I told them to place a Koran in Front of them during the conversation. They did not accept the challenge." Azmin said police also asked him to admit that Harun Din, a religious leader and government critic, was a womaniser. When he refused at first to confess to any relationship with Anwar, "they showed me newspaper cuttings with Sukma's admission (that he was sodomised by Anwar) and they said I can be detained under Internal Security Act (ISA) for 20 years." The ISA allows indefinite detention without trial. In September 1998, Sukma and another man were jailed for six months for allowing Anwar to sodomise them. They later appealed, saying police forced them to confess. Their trial is on.
