a) Bizarre circumstances surround the way in which confessions were obtained from two potential State witnesses against Anwar Ibrahim (under the sodomy charges). They were Dr Munawar Anees (an internationally-known scholar) who was Anwar's speechwriter for some time, and Anwar's adopted brother, Sukma Dermawan (a businessman). On Saturday 19 September, 1998, both pleaded guilty in separate Sessions Courts to being sodomised by Anwar and were sentenced to six months in prison. Dr Munawar had been arrested under the ISA the previous Tuesday 14 September 1998 and held incommunicado until produced in court. Sukma had been arrested under criminal procedure investigation provisions on 4 September 1998 and detained incommunicado for 15 days before production in court. Dr. Munawar has recently filed an affidavit in court in the course giving details of being subjected to torture.

b) Two lawyers unknown to the families of the two men had been appointed for them to handle the confession hearing. Dr Munawar told his family that the lawyer acting for him at the hearing had been appointed for him by the deputy public prosecutor for the case, one Azahar Mohamed. Incidentally this Azahar is also one of the four deputy public prosecutors appointed by the Attorney General to handle the criminal case against Anwar.

c) Lawyers appointed by the families were not allowed to meet with the two on the day of confession and sentencing. It is interesting that the proceedings ran parallel in two separate courts and yet identical sentences were handed down.

d) Manjit Singh Dhillon, appointed subsequently by Munawar's wife to represent him for the filing of an appeal against the conviction and sentence, informed the press that it is unusual that the two n-ien who on the facts alleged were victims of a sexual crime, were prosecuted instead instead of the perpetrator of the offence.

e) Several suspicious and irregular events happened after the guilty pleas. First family appointed lawyers for Sukma were denied access to him in Kajang Prison on the ground that only the lawyer who acted for him at the confession hearing would be allowed to see him. His sister saw him the day before and was asked expressly by him to appoint a lawyer for him. The day after family appointed lawyers attempted to see him at Kajang Prison, Sukma was whisked away by police from Kajang Prison and has since been kept in police custody at Police HQ. No access has been allowed to family appointed lawyers. His sister has proceeded to instruct lawyers to file an appeal against his conviction and sentence. She believes that he is now being pressured by the police to withdraw the appeal against conviction and sentence.

f) In-imediately after his conviction, Dr Munawar was warded in hospital for a serious heart ailment. Lawyers were able to meet him in hospital. He has instructed the filing of an appeal against his conviction and sentence. Dr Munawar had recently filed an affidavit in Court saying that after his appeal was plea, the police and the lawyer Yacob Karim (who was appointed for him by the Deputy Public Prosecutor earlier) had kept trying to persuade, threaten and advise him against proceeding with the appeal.

g) An example of the amount of prejudicial material against Anwar's legal case (in connection with the Dr Munawar/Sukma affair) is the press statement of the Prime Minister made on September 22, 1998, who said, inter alia:

"But he did not expect his own adopted brother and his friend will come out in the open and make this statement. They made this statement because 1 believe the police, who are Muslims, and those knowledgeable about Islarn, pointed out to them that what they committed was a great sin and punishable in the after-life and they need to repent and recant. But it would seem to that they decided they should come clean, even at the risk of their families being shamed by their confessions. What they said was the absolute truth. Anwar has not sworn in the mosque as he claimed . What he did was just to say "I swear." And that is not good enough. The fact is that the man had for years been masquerading as a religious person and yet had been committing these things not today, not yesterday, but for years."