Insider: Anwar was warned

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had been forewarned and was asked to be careful when taking in 23-year-old Saiful Bukhari Azlan as a staff, according to a party source.

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However, Anwar ignored the warning and now Saiful has accused the PKR leader of sodomising him at a condominium in the Damansara area.

"He (Anwar) was told to be careful of the individual due to his suspicious background when he joined the office administration," said the source.

The same ‘warnings' had been given to other party leaders after Saiful had became close to Anwar and the staff at his office following the March 8 general elections.

"I have also given addresses of several blogs discussing the boy (Saiful). I'm not sure if he (Anwar) read them or not," said the source.

According to the source, Anwar did not reply to the particular email detailing the blogs.

Malaysiakini has been made to understand that two-weeks ago, Anwar had asked another aide to persuade the source concerned to retract a posting cynical of Saiful on his blog

Yesterday, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail challenged Saiful's credibility by showing a photograph of the youth posing with Khairil Anas Yusoh, the special officer to Deputy Premier Najib Abdul Razak at the latter's office.

Photographs of Saiful with several cabinet ministers such as Shahrir Abdul Samad, Azalina Othman Said and Mustapa Mohamed are in circulation now.

All three cabinet ministers have denied involvement with Saiful's accusation against Anwar.

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The source also described Saiful as a person who had shown an interest in campus politics at Universiti Teknologi Nasional (Uniten) in Bangi, Selangor, rising to the position of deputy president of the student council in 2007.

Saiful was said to be more prominent than the council president as he was good at projecting a positive image, added the source who has known Saiful since his university days.

According to the source, Saiful dropped out of his electrical engineering course last year and during the March 8 general election, showed his support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Barisan Nasional coalition, through his webpage in Friendster.com, a social networking website.

"At the time, he was also accompanying Anwar on the campaign trail. On his website, he was campaigning for Barisan," explained the source.

Saiful is believed to have joined Anwar's office on the recommendation of his old schoolmate Rahimi Osman, who at the time was the former deputy premier's officer.

Rahimi was responsible for Anwar's schedule and would accompany him to events during the March 8 general election.

However, as Rahimi had stopped working at the office about a month ago, Saiful assumed his duties.

"No one is sure of the process in which (Saiful) joined the office. Maybe, at the time there were just not enough people," said the source.

The source added the Saiful's actual role in the office however was "unclear".

Saiful's character had been the subject of much heated debate on the Internet with at least two bloggers through their site claiming to know him personally.

A visit to his home in Bandar Utama affirmed further that Saiful's whereabouts are presently unknown.