Dewan Rakyat hears case of Anwar ex-staff as example of wilful denial of bail leading to prison overcrowding

Perikatan Nasional's (PN) Kota Bharu MP, Takiyuddin Hassan, today raised the case of a former research assistant to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim who was charged with the possession of drugs and firearms which police claimed were found in his car.

Takiyuddin said the case involving Yusoff Rawther was an example of how bail is more often than not rejected by the courts without considering the merit of individual cases, leading to unnecessary overcrowding in prisons.

"He once filed a criminal complaint against his employer. The police took no action against his employer, whereupon he filed a civil suit against his employer.

"But not long ago... he was arrested. He was allegedly in possession of cannabis and also had two guns," Takiyuddin told Dewan Rakyat while talking about remand prisoners, who make up about 28,000 of the 87,000 inmates currently housed in prisons nationwide which have a maximum capacity of 74,000.

The PAS secretary-general recounted how the police had ambushed Yusoff on the day of his arrest as he was about to get into his car.

"He had not got in yet. The car was parked on the side of the road," he said.

Takiyuddin said the charges against Yusoff were framed under non-bailable offences, causing him to be sent to prison.

He said the court should have considered the circumstances in the months leading to Yusoff's arrest, including the possibility that he was framed.

"It is believed that he was victimised because he filed a suit against someone who is currently in power," he added.

On Oct 9, Yusoff, the grandson of the late Penang consumer advocate SM Mohamed Idris, pleaded not guilty to possession of imitation weapons under the Firearms Act, facing a imprisonment of up to a year, fine of up to RM5,000 or both.

The 31-year-old, who worked for Anwar in 2018 before suing the PKR chairman for sexual assault, also faces charges of possession of 305g of cannabis under the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Yusoff has maintained that the items were planted in his car by people harbouring a grudge against him.

He has also filed two police reports with names of people to be investigated, but police have yet to comment on the status of the reports.

On Nov 12, family members detailed  what transpired on the day of Yusoff's arrest and recalled that he had been tailed by unknown persons for months.

They recounted how Yusoff was ambushed by a team of policemen in an unmarked car and a motorbike as he walked to his car parked outside his apartment block on Sept 6.

"The police asked him to open the car door but it did not open with the remote, then one of them directed Yusoff to open the car door manually and it still did not work either," his aunt Fathima Idris said in a press conference.

Fathima said a police officer then opened the passenger side of Yusoff's car before asking him to open the driver's door.

She said Yusoff was restrained while police searched the car, and shortly after, an officer came out with a bag and asked him what was inside, to which Yusoff replied that he did not know.

At this point, the police took a gun out of the bag, she said.

"They then handcuffed Yusoff, got him to sit in the back of his car together with a police and another one of them drove the car to KL police headquarters and searched the car there."

Fathima said Yusoff could not see what was happening inside the car before the the drugs turned up at the car park in front of the surau of the police headquarters.

She said police repeatedly tried to intimidate Yusoff into signing a "borang bongkar" (seizure list) detailing the items that were allegedly in his car, but he refused.

Yusoff has filed a separate suit against Anwar's former political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, claiming damages for the injuries he suffered after he was assaulted at Anwar’s bungalow office in Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya.

In October 2022, the Shah Alam Sessions Court ordered Anwar's press secretary, Tunku Nashrul Tunku Abaidah, to pay Yusoff RM200,000 in damages for statements made in connection with the assault on Farhash.