Musa sues Anwar for defamation

KUALA LUMPUR: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan is fighting the allegations that he fabricated evidence against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim more than a decade ago.

Three weeks after a police report was lodged against him by the Parti Keadilan Rakyat de facto leader, Musa yesterday broke his silence and countered with a suit.

Earlier, the IGP had given Anwar 48 hours to apologise over the police report, which Musa described as “malicious, slanderous and libellous”.

The apology did not come and Musa yesterday filed suit through his counsel, Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin, at the High Court Registry.

The suit was filed on a day when Anwar went public with more allegations of Musa fabricating evidence against him in 1998 (See Page 6).
At almost the same time that Musa’s suit was filed, Anwar was at the Anti-Corruption Agency giving his statement on the report he had lodged on July 1.

In that report, he accused Musa and Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail of fabricating evidence during investigations into the “black eye” incident in 1998.

Anwar was assaulted by the then inspector-general of police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, while being detained at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

In the investigations that followed the assault, Musa was the investigating officer while Abdul Gani was the head of prosecution at the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Musa, in his statement of claim, said Anwar’s police report, in its natural and ordinary meaning, alleged that the IGP had misused his power to fabricate evidence.

“It also indicated that I was dishonest and an irresponsible person,” Musa said.

He contended that by lodging the report, Anwar had committed defamation repeatedly when he allowed the report to be reproduced on several websites, including his own blog, which is accessible by the public.

Musa argued that Anwar had acted as such to:

- divert public attention and focus away from the sodomy accusation by Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan;

- influence the public into thinking that the sodomy accusation was a political conspiracy against him; and

- to destroy any credible evidence and statements gathered by the police and witnesses in the likelihood that he is charged.

“As such, Anwar lodged the police report not to report facts but to support and justify his accusations.”

The IGP claimed an unspecified amount in damages for slander and sought an injunction restraining Anwar, his servants or his agents from further publishing the defamatory words, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.

In an immediate response, Anwar said: “I will deal with it (the suit) in court. I will be happy to face him in court.”