This was revealed by his lawyer R Sivarasa, who said that the former opposition leader’s name is on the conducting officer’s witness list.
“According to the witness list, he’s testifying tomorrow,” Sivarasa said when talking to reporters during a break on the fourth day of the RCI proceedings at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya today.
Anwar, who is currently serving a five-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh prison, had previously voiced concern that he would not be called to testify at the RCI, let alone be present for the proceedings which started on Aug 21.
“I am without question a person who is ‘concerned’ with the proceedings of the Inquiry as provided for under Section 18 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.
“Therefore, I remain very concerned that I’m not allowed to be present despite repeated requests by my lawyers. I need to be there based on the fact that my name has been mentioned a number of times by certain witnesses,” Anwar said in a statement on Aug 24, adding that he was only able to follow the proceedings through limited contact with his lawyers.
Anwar, who was finance minister in Mahathir’s cabinet in the 1990s, had also made particular mention of testimony from former BNM deputy governor, Murad Abdul Khalid, which he said had incriminated him.
“I have read the witness statement of Murad Abdul Khalid, where at paragraph 37, he alleges that on a flight to Hawaii in early 1994, he briefed me on the BNM forex losses and that I had said that if those losses were made public, I would have to resign as finance minister.
“His malicious insinuation is clear, that is, that I had implied a cover-up was needed,” the Pakatan Harapan adviser said, denying he was involved in Bank Negara’s decisions that led to the forex trading losses.
Anwar had previously said he was prepared to cooperate with the RCI as he was finance minister at the time and had accepted the resignation of the officer responsible, Nor Mohamed Yakcop, as well as Bank Negara governor Jaafar Hussein.
The RCI, which is chaired by former chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan, is expected to take three months before a report is submitted to the Yang diPertuan Agong.
Aside from Sidek, the other members of the RCI are High Court judge Kamaludin Md Said, Bursa Malaysia Berhad chief executive officer Tajuddin Atan, Special Task Force on Facilitating Business co-chairman Saw Choo Boon, as well as former Ernst & Young partner Pushpanathan SA Kanagarayar.
Credibility of former Bank Negara senior official questioned at RCI