KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi clarified that he had made a statement on allegations of rape said by a minister only on Saturday as he just came to know of the allegations.
He said that he had not said anything earlier because he was not informed of the allegations.
Abdullah said he had responded on Saturday because the media had asked him about the allegations in some blog sites alleging that Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Utama Rais Yatim had raped his former maid in 2007.
The former prime minister said he had said nothing else and would like to disassociate himself from other references in an earlier report quoting him on the allegations.
In the blog, Rais, who was then the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, was alleged to have molested his former domestic maid and that the Abdullah administration was alleged to have kept quiet in order to avoid a regional conflict.
Abdulah reportedly said on Saturday he was not bothered about the issue played up in the Internet because he was convinced that the incident had never taken place.
“If what is being said is not true, then the victim will certainly react and in this case, Datuk Seri Dr Rais has made a statement denying it,” he reportedly said after officially opened ‘The Abdullah Yusuf Ali Momorial Lecture’ and launched the book ‘The History of the Qura’anic Text’ written by M M Al-A’zami at the Auditorim Kolej Universiti MAHSA.
On Wednesday, Rais had denied the allegation that he was involved in a molest case in 2007 as well as all the other allegations made by the blogger in the Internet as well as by the opposition.
On Friday, the detik.com news portal reported that Rais’s former domestic maid had denied the allegation against Rais, adding that the minister was a kind man and had no problem with her. — Bernama