Saiful in hiding, uncle has faith

Saiful in hiding, uncle has faith

The man who lodged a police report against Anwar Ibrahim - his special aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan - is already undergoing a character trial on the Internet. Further, the most talked about 23-year-old in Malaysia is nowhere to be found.Saiful now stands accused of being part of a conspiracy plot orchestrated by politicians from the Barisan Nasional government to defame or have Anwar jailed once again.

He alleged that the PKR de facto leader sodomised him at a luxury condominium in Damansara.

And at a PKR press conference yesterday - and now all over blogs and the Internet - pictures of Saiful and various BN politicians were distributed.Besides posing with ministers like Shahrir Abdul Samad, Azalina Othman Said and Mustapa Mohamed, Saiful has also taken pictures with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's special officer Khairil Anas Yusof.

Najib today denied any involvement with Saiful.

A visit to Saiful's home in Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya this afternoon showed no signs of people.

However, after several minutes of buzzing the house bell, a man who said he was Saiful's uncle answered the door.

A good kid. According to the uncle, who did not want to give his name, his nephew had gone into hiding and he had not contacted him since news of the report broke out on Saturday.

"But I believe in Saiful," said the twenty-something-year-old at the double-storey house. "He is a good kid and all that he has done, he has done with honesty".

"I just got back from Perak and we've not been in touch but I know why he lodged the report," he added. Teary-eyed, the uncle said that his nephew reported the matter as he wanted to expose the PKR leader for what he was.

When asked about Saiful's alleged links to Umno politicians, the uncle brushed them off."We've got no help or connections with Umno. All he wanted to do is to expose the heinous crime."

Besides his safety, Saiful also stands to lose big if his allegations do not hold water.

At midday today, Anwar's lawyers have filed a defamation suit against the former Uniten dropout.In the suit which was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry in Jalan Duta, Anwar also claimed that the police report lodged by Saiful was an abuse of the process of law.

Anwar is also in hiding

Meanwhile, Anwar is also in hiding - albeit in a more public and protected enclave - at the Turkish Embassy.Citing unidentified sources who want to harm him, the former deputy prime minister moved into the embassy at 6am yesterday.

This was after Saturday's press conference where Anwar revealed that he had evidence implicating police chief Musa Hassan and attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail of alleged misconduct during his trials in 1998-1999.

PKR officials have postponed their plans to lodge a police report against the duo, a decision probably caused by the present developments.