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Darth Vader
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Thursday October 7, 2010
Men stop Anwar’s former assistant from talking to media
KLANG: Groups of men stormed a restaurant here and stopped a former aide of PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from talking to the press. The men, believed to be PKR members, hurled obscenities at both Rahimi Osman and his lawyer S. Ravi Chandran and demanded that they leave the premises without speaking to the media.
However, it is believed that Rahimi, who was Anwar’s aide in 2008, had lodged a police report at the Klang district police headquarters before going to the restaurant for the press conference scheduled at 4pm yesterday. It was learnt that Rahimi had stated in the report that he was forced to sign two statutory declarations in 2008 implicating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the sodomy case involving his friend Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, who is also Anwar’s former aide.
According to the report, Rahimi alleged that he was forced to sign the statutory declaration by several PKR members, including party information chief Latheefa Koya. He claimed that he was also forced to remain in a hotel in Shah Alam for a few days after signing the statutory declarations, which he had done under duress and for fear for his safety.
It is believed that he had made a new statutory declaration yesterday to debunk his earlier two declarations. Klang OCPD ACP Mohamad Mat Yusop confirmed that Rahimi had lodged a report at the Klang police station. Anwar’s aide in charge of Indian affairs K. Suresh Kumar, who was at the restaurant, accused Rahimi of trying to create chaos at a time when the PKR polls for the top posts were around the corner, and that he had been “paid” to make his allegations.
“What is he up to? He disappeared when Mohd Saiful accused Datuk Seri (Anwar). I called him and he told me then that he wanted to remain neutral,” said Suresh Kumar. The group later gathered at another restaurant in Petaling Jaya after hearing rumours that Rahimi would be giving another press conference but left when he did not show up. Latheefa, meanwhile, denied using any form of duress on Rahimi.
“He was at that time a potential witness in the sodomy case and as part of the defence team, we were merely preparing statements for potential witnesses, which is the norm in any legal defence,” she said. She added that Rahimi had voluntarily cooperated at all times, adding that it was absurd for him to claim duress two years after making statutory declarations that were never used.
