Reduced charge against top cop who beat Anwar based on law: minister
Pandikar Amin Mulia, a minister in the prime minister's department, said the amendment was also made after considering representations by the lawyer for former national police chief Abdul Rahim Noor.
Rahim was last week jailed for two months and fined 2,000 ringgitdollars) for assaulting a blindfolded and handcuffed Anwar Ibrahim on the sacked deputy premier's first night in custody.
Opposition politicians including Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, criticised the sentence as inadequate. Local human rights group Aliran said Rahim committed "a brutal and cowardly attack upon a defenceless police detainee." It added: "Had Rahim not been restrained by others, the consequences for Anwar could have been deadly."
Prosecutors are appealing the sentence on the grounds it is too light while the defence is appealing for a non-custodial penalty. Rahim is free on bail pending the outcome.
Rahim pleaded guilty last week to a reduced charge of causing hurt to Anwar, which carries a maximum one year in jail.
He was originally charged with attempting to cause grievous hurt to Anwar which carries a maximum three-and-a-half years' jail.
Pandikar Amin, quoted by the official Bernama news agency, told parliament the reduced charge did not make the offence any less serious in the context of the law.
Anwar led mass anti-government protests after his sacking as deputy premier and finance minister on September 2, 1998.
On September 20 that year police broke down the door of his home and arrested him, initially under a law allowing detention without trial.
Anwar, 52, was jailed last April for using his official powers to cover up allegations of homosexual and heterosexual misconduct.
He is separately on trial for sodomy, punishable by up to 20 years, but says he is the victim of a political conspiracy.