DNA & Police Report

(DNA in huge “demand” – Image source: www.turbosquid.com)

Two entries in the internet, one in Malaysia Today (the obvious juicy one) and another in Malaysiakini, throws more doubt why the police (and the Government) are very insistent on a fresh DNA sample.

From Malaysia Today

The ‘evidence’ is ready. The semen specimen on Saiful’s underwear has been confirmed. The only problem would be if they allow an independent foreign expert to do an audit on the Chemistry Department’s findings, he or she might confirm that the specimen is ten years old and not dated 26 June 2008 as alleged.

So they need to exchange the September 1998 specimen with a new one dated July 2008. And that is why Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Syed Hamid Albar, and all those others, have asked Anwar to volunteer his new specimen. They need this new specimen to ‘prove’ that the semen on Saiful’s underwear is dated 26 June 2008 and not September 1998.

And Abdullah himself ‘confirmed’ this when he asked Anwar to volunteer his new specimen whereas the old specimen is good enough if it is just required for DNA profiling — only that it would not pass the test if an independent foreign expert was to audit the Chemistry Department’s ‘evidence’ and then come out with a report that says the specimen is ten years old.

Read further here

From Malaysiakini

The PM has been cheated. DNA degrades with time, but in perfect conditions it could last for several thousand years. It certainly would not last for millions of years, or even hundreds of thousands of years but certainly for a very short 10 years.

Researchers even retrieved DNA from the teeth of Neanderthal men, that’s over 40,000 year-old teeth.

Read further here

Anwar during his rally in Malacca jokingly said this

“The police have my DNA & my blood, the police has accuser in safe custody, 2 x 5, 5 x 2…” (you make the necessary connections lah)

Conspiracies aside, the police may have their own valid reasons for fresh DNA but until they give Anwar the actual police report of the accusations, there is little creditability in their request.

As what Anwar’s lawyer said, to give police report is an “elementary natural justice” that an accused “should have sight of the accusation, before being called upon to explain anything”.

Sivarasa quoted in Malaysiakini, as saying:-

The First Information Report – a complaint lodged with the police by an alleged victim of a crime – is a public document and should be made available to all persons affected by the report.

“To continue to expect the target of a criminal investigation to answer questions, supply information, and provide evidence in total ignorance of the circumstances of the offence alleged against him, is eerily reminiscent of an episode where a prisoner was blindfolded and handcuffed, and therefore totally unable to defend himself in any way and was then viciously attacked by the police themselves.”

When Pak Lah asks why Anwar is afraid of giving fresh DNA sample, I believe that the same can be asked of the police – what is it that the police are afraid of giving the police report to Anwar? Most of the facts have already brought to the open and been publically discussed anyway.

No wonder Anwar is suspicious of the request for fresh DNA. Who wouldn’t?

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