Police brainwashed me, claims Munawar

A JAILED Pakistani associate of sacked Malaysian Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim has accused police of humiliating and brainwashing him prior to his confession of homosexual acts with Anwar.

Munawar Ahmad Anees, who once wrote speeches for Anwar, said in a sworn statement that he was shaved bald and repeatedly blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated after being arrested at home on Sept 14 under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday fixed Nov 4 to hear two applications filed by him through his lawyers.

One application sought a detailed schedule of his movements from Sept 14 -- the day of his arrest -- and another wants the police to provide a list of belongings seized from his home.

He is opening a can of worms in a bid to overturn a six-month jail term for allowing the former DPM to sodomise him.

He is going to show that his plea of guilt to the offence was obtained under duress, suffered as a result of his ISA detention.

In the statement filed to support the requests, he recounted his experience under detention.

He said that after his arrest, he was taken to a police station where his particulars were taken down. A while later, he said, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken for a 30-minute drive.

On reaching a destination, he was confronted by four men who asked him to strip.

"I tried to resist but had no option but to accede to their request. My captors kept making disparaging remarks about me in a dismissive, humiliating style.

"They and others took turns to systematically strip me of all my humanity and self respect," alleged the Pakistani national.

After this, he was led to a small cell which did not contain any bed or blankets.

"The room was brightly lit by an overhead light that was never switched off throughout my stay there. The glare of the light could not be avoided from any position."

He spent some time in the cell on the first day before he was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to a room where he was shaved bald against his will.

From then on, he alleged that he was put under long and continuous sessions of interrogation.

"I have narrated to my lawyers my systematic humiliation by my captors who always remained unidentified, of how they stripped me of all self respect, of how they degraded me and broke down my will and resistance, and of how they brainwashed me."

He said that when he appeared in court on Sept 19 and pleaded guilty to a charge of sodomy, he was "a shivering shell of a man willing to do anything to stop the destruction of my being".

He said that his lawyers are preparing a detailed record of his detention which will be filed in the High Court.

The Straits Times understands that the record to be part of submissions for his appeal will be filed on Friday.

In his affidavit, the appellant said that he had been at the National Heart Institute since Sept 23 because of deteriorating health.

While there, he was visited at various times by police officers and Mr Yacob Karim, his lawyer at the sentencing stage.

He alleged that "they were uninvited visitors who kept on trying to alternately threaten, convince and advise me against filing or proceeding with an appeal against conviction and sentence".

Since his conviction, there has been some confusion as to who represents Munawar.

Lawyers Manjeet Singh and Balwant Singh say that they have been appointed to file an appeal while Mr Yacob says that he remains the counsel on record.