05 July 1999

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The adopted brother of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim picked out his alleged torturers in a court room line-up Friday and charged that they forced him to sign a confession admitting to homosexual acts.

Anwar's attorneys sought Sukma Dermawan's dramatic testimony to block his controversial confession from being used as evidence in Anwar's second trial, which began last month.

Long considered Malaysia's next leader Anwar, 51, was sentenced in April to six years in prison for abusing his power to cover up alleged sexual trysts with men and women. He is now being tried on charges of allegedly sodomizing his former family driver.

Sodomy is illegal in this southeast Asian country, which is mostly Muslim.

Anwar denies the charges and claims he was framed for challenging the 73-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, Asia's longest-serving ruler.

Sukma, a 38-year-old boutique owner, singled out a man in a long-sleeved shirt and dark tie from a half-dozen policemen who shuffled around as they stood in single file.

``The first one, he's one of them,'' he said. Sukma selected four men in all.

Sukma identified the first one as ``Inspector Sempornak'' but said he didn't know the names of the others who allegedly coerced him last September to make an 11-page confession.

``They heaped scorn on my family background,'' he said on his third day of testimony. ``They mocked me ceaselessly, all at once.''

Sukma was convicted on the basis of that confession and sentenced to six months in jail on Sept. 19. He later retracted his statement.

Prosecutors have charged Anwar with sodomizing his former family driver Azizan Abu Bakar in 1993. Sukma, who faces the same charge, is also on trial for helping Anwar commit sodomy.

The maximum punishment for sodomy is 20 years imprisonment and a whipping upon conviction. Anwar is already serving a six-year jail term after being convicted of abusing power.

Sukma testified he was ``systematically programmed like a computer'' during his 14-day detention last September and forced to rehearse a series of lies so he could recite them to a magistrate who recorded his confession.

``The more stories I told, the more delighted they were,'' Sukma said. ``The stories I fabricated were according to what they wanted.''

Prosecutors say that Sukma made the confession on his own volition.

A dozen women clad in Muslim veils and scarves sat in the public gallery listening raptly to the often lurid testimony, some of them shaking their heads in disbelief.

Earlier, Sukma said he was also forced to strip and parade in front of jeering police officers, denied medication and allowed to wear only undergarments in his damp cell. He also accused his interrogators of threatening to plant bullets in his car and imprison him without trial.

Source : Obtained from Gaywired.com