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Report filed against 'Utusan Malaysia'
2010/02/05


KUALA LUMPUR: A police report was lodged against the Utusan Malaysia newspaper yesterday for allegedly insinuating that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had sodomised Mohd Saiful Azlan Bukhari more than once.
The report was lodged late yesterday at the Tropicana police station by Parti Keadilan Rakyat's communication director Johnson Chong.

Earlier in court, Anwar had failed in his attempt to cite the newspaper for contempt for their front-page article yesterday.

High Court judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled that there was no contempt because the report was not carried with the intention of being mischievous and to disrupt trial proceedings.

"This court has no power to institute contempt proceedings against the newspaper. However, lawyers (for Anwar) can lodge a police report," the judge said.

The judge also rejected Karpal's insistence that he caution the media from publishing misleading reports.

At the outset of the proceedings in the afternoon, Karpal brought to attention Utusan Malaysia's page one headline "Tak rela diliwat lagi" (Not willing to be sodo-mised again) and another, "Berhenti kerana tidak mahu diliwat lagi" (Resigned, because not willing to be sodo-mised again) on page three.

"The headings are to put Anwar in a bad light. Saiful did not, in his testimony, say he was sodomised repeatedly," he said, adding that the headings were false, mischievous and improper.

Karpal told the court that the newspaper was owned by Umno, which the prime minister is the president of, and maintained the defence contention that the prime minister was involved.

He said the court must act as Utusan Malaysia was becoming bolder.

Solicitor-General II Datuk Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden accused Karpal of making an uncalled for remark to state that the newspaper belonged to Umno.

"Whether the report is accurate is subject to dispute but it was not reported with malicious intention," the lead prosecutor said, adding that the complaint did not warrant any contempt action.