Malaysia's police chief resigned yesterday, taking full responsibility for injuries inflicted on the ousted finance minister, Mr Anwar Ibrahim, while in police custody three months ago. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Abdul Rahim Noor, bowed to a wave of indignation set off when Mr Anwar appeared in court in September with a black eye and bruises on his neck and hands.
On Tuesday the State Attorney-General, Mr Mohtar Abdullah, released a statement pinning the blame for Mr Anwar's injuries on the police.
"I, as the Inspector-General of the Royal Malaysia Police, assume full responsibility," Mr Rahim Noor said in his resignation statement. "I have therefore taken a decision to terminate my service as the Inspector-General of Police with effect from tomorrow."
Mr Rahim Noor became the first official to resign since the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, sacked Mr Anwar in early September, exposing a deep divide in Malaysia's dominant political party. But it was not clear whether the police chief's departure would put an end to a raging controversy over police treatment of Mr Anwar.
Opposition leaders and rights activists have accused the Attorney-General of keeping the public in the dark over Mr Anwar's injuries and called for him to step down as well.
Mr Mohtar confirmed on Tuesday that police had injured Mr Anwar after he was arrested, but said a police investigation had failed to identify the person or persons responsible despite interviews with 63 policemen.
He ordered police officers in charge of a special inquiry to interview Mr Rahim Noor and other senior policemen.
In a rare breaking of ranks, a component party in Dr Mahathir's governing coalition on Wednesday criticised the delay in identifying the person or persons who injured Mr Anwar.
The president of the Aliran rights group, Mr P. Ramakrishnan, yesterday called on Dr Mahathir and the Attorney-General to resign unless "those responsible for assaulting Anwar" were identified by the end of the month.
Dr Mahathir on Wednesday said he would consider demands for an independent inquiry into Mr Anwar's injury. Even that move did not satisfy all his critics.
"Dr Mahathir may well use the setting up of an independent panel to prolong the agony of the public which wants to know without any procrastination who was responsible for the assault on Anwar and what were the motives behind it," Mr Chandra Muzaffar, president of the rights group, International Movement for a Just World, said.
Meanwhile, a government chemist said yesterday he could not prove Mr Anwar's semen had not been planted on a mattress seized by police to incriminate him of sex crimes.
Mr Lim Kong Boon, testifying in the corruption and sex trial of Mr Anwar, also told the High Court he had destroyed some key evidence from a lab test on the mattress which proved the semen was Mr Anwar's.
Prosecutors said the mattress was seized by police from a apartment in the capital allegedly used by Mr Anwar for his trysts.
They said DNA tests proved the mattress was stained in 13 spots with sexual fluids of the former cabinet member, two women and two other men.
Defence lawyers have argued that the mattress could have come from elsewhere and that Mr Anwar, beaten unconscious in custody after his arrest, could have had semen drawn from him and smeared on it.
Mr Lim, a forensic scientist in the Malaysian chemistry department, said under cross-examination by Mr Anwar's counsel, Mr Raja Aziz Raja Addruse, he was uncertain when the semen stains were made.
"Because it is not possible to determine the age of the stains, it will not be scientifically possible to determine whether the stains came on to the mattress after it had been seized by the police?" Mr Raja Aziz asked Mr Lim.
"Yes, I agree I am unable to determine that scientifically," the chemist said.
Mr Raja Aziz, helped by British and Australian DNA experts brought in by the defence, then tried to discredit Mr Lim's evidence that blood from Mr Anwar matched the characteristic in the semen on the mattress. But the chemist swore by the accuracy of his analysis, saying Mr Anwar's blood was "very unique".