ReformIS
[ Berita (News) | Cari (Search) | Menu Utama (Main Menu) | Hantar Berita (Submit News) ]
From: The Singapore ST
Date: 04 May 1999
Time: 14:10:15
KUALA LUMPUR -- The main accuser of jailed former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim says the trial has affected her in that she has lost her freedom and needs to be accompanied in public.
"I don't have any more freedom. I can't go out alone. I cannot go to the hair salon or a supermarket," said Miss Ummi Hafilda Ali, the sister of Mohamed Azmin Ali, who was Anwar's former private secretary. "People stare at me...maybe they have negative perceptions of me after the allegations made against me," she told The Sunday Star in aninterview.
The 31-year-old advertising-company boss also revealed that she had received death threats and that her car was burnt.
In a letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1997, she accused Anwar of having sex with his driver, Mr Azizan Abu Bakar, as well as her sister-in-law, Azmin's wife Shamsidar Taharin. The letter was one of the main pieces of prosecution evidence submitted in the trial which found Anwar guilty of having used his position to get the police to cover up sexual-misconduct allegations.
Miss Ummi told The Sunday Star that to cope with the perception by some people that she was a villain in the Anwar case, "I have changed my telephone number many times. I have received a lot of threatening phone calls from people who said they would kill me within days".
She added: "Even my mother received a lot of threatening calls. My car was set on fire outside my office. Even gangsters were sent to myoffice." She made headlines again on Friday when she sued Harakah, the opposition Parti Islam newspaper, for RM60 million (S$26.7 million) for alleging that she was a "small-time hooker" in a satirical article last month. Miss Ummi said in the interview that she was single, although "there was someone close to her". But she declined to elaborate on this issue.
She stressed: "No, I have never been married. And certainly I am not a prostitute." On family ties, she said the Anwar trial had been a tough time for all members of her family. She noted that while her relationship with her father was "not so good", she said she was prepared to forgive Azmin, a key defence witness now being charged with perjury. "But I am proud to say that my mother, my two sisters and my brothers give me a lot of moral support.
"My mother has made it a point to call me every day and she prays for me." She also said she was patriotic and admired the Prime Minister.