No plans to release Anwar video, say police

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 - The authorities are not going ahead with a plan to show footage of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during his detention on July 16, concerned that the public would view this as an attempt to humiliate him. The Malaysian Insider reported on Wednesday that Home Ministry were considering the move to dispel accusations that police treated the Opposition icon shabbily during his overnight stay in the lock-up. But it is understood that ministry officials decided against showing the footage, believing that it could be counter-productive. Senior police officers were also not in favour of making public any footage of Anwar's detention, arguing that it will turn the investigation into a political sideshow. Today, they came out in force to deny that there was ever a plan to release the CCTV footage, dismissing it as a mere rumour. Police are investigating a report lodged by Saiful Bukhary Azlan that he was allegedly sodomised by the former deputy prime minister in a condominium in Damansara on June 26. In 1998, Anwar was accused of sodomising his driver and adopted brother. Even before his sodomy trial began, there was a campaign in the media to demonize and convict him. This went down badly with the public who viewed this as an attempt by the administration to humiliate him and his family. Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng said the release of footage of the detention would not have supported the police case that Anwar was not mistreated while in detention. "The fact that Anwar had to spend one night in the lockup showed that he was mistreated," he said.