Anwar says he was poisoned, demands full investigation

Anwar says he was poisoned, demands full investigation

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysia's jailed former finance
minister Anwar Ibrahim said he was poisoned as part of a criminal
conspiracy and demanded an investigation into what he said could
be attempted murder.

Anwar was taken to hospital on Friday after his lawyer said a
pathologist in Australia had certified arsenic had been found in
Anwar's urine.

"It's now proven that I have been poisoned," Anwar said in a
police report filed on Friday and read to reporters by his wife.

"I regret that the conspiracy to topple me has not been
limited to just political action but now also involves physical
moves to poison me."

Anwar's lawyer Karpal Singh, who is a leader of an opposition
party, said he suspected "some people in high places" were
responsible for poisoning the former minister.

But Attorney-general Mohtar Abdullah told Anwar's sex trial
that the former prime-minister-in-waiting had taken food from
family members in the courtroom.

The trial was adjourned to allow Anwar to be taken to
hospital.

"Datuk Seri Anwar has been allowed by the prison authorities
to mix around and mingle freely in this court," Mohtar said.

Anwar's allegation he was poisoned was the latest twist in
Malaysia's year-long political drama pitting the charismatic ex-
deputy prime minister against his former mentor, Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad.

Anwar was sacked by Mahathir in September 1998 and arrested
later that month after leading thousands of anti-government
protesters through the capital.

The then police chief hit the handcuffed and blindfolded Anwar
on the night of his arrest. The former prime-minister in-waiting
later appeared in court with a black eye and bruises, sparking
international condemnation.

Before the police chief admitted he hit Anwar, Mahathir said
his former deputy's injuries could have been self-inflicted.

Anwar was sentenced in April to six years in jail for
corruption. He says he is innocent and the victim of a plot by
political opponents led by Mahathir to sideline him from power.

Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, quickly denied
suggestions his family had tried to poison him to win political
sympathy ahead of general elections due by June but expected
sooner. Wan Azizah leads one of the opposition parties.

"This is genuine concern for my husband's life," Wan Azizah
told reporters. "How could anybody at a time like this say, even
insinuate, that the family could have been the cause of this or
even thought of poisoning him?"

Syed Husin Ali, leader of the opposition Parti Rakyat
Malaysia, said: "It's the most horrendous thing I have heard of
and there is no doubt somebody up there wants him to be killed,
if not politically, then physically."

Wan Azizah later told reporters at the hospital that Anwar was
being kept at the executive ward to undergo a thorough check-up.
She said the court had ordered a detailed test.

"He is in very good spirits, but he is very alarmed that his
life is threatened. But what can we do? He is, after all, in
custody," she said.

Police were stationed outside the ward on the seventh floor of
the hospital. Reporters were not allowed into the ward.

After Anwar was arrested last year, Wan Azizah said she
worried he would be injected with the HIV virus which causes
AIDS.

"From the very beginning, we have seen the existence of a
conspiracy to silence his influence in politics. However, we
never expected them to go this far, to commit a criminal act,"
she said.

"Now there's evidence that he has been poisoned and the
poisoning is serious," she said, calling arsenic insidious.
Anwar, reiterating what his lawyer Karpal told the capital's High
Court earlier on Friday, said a dangerously high level of arsenic
-- almost 80 times normal -- had been found in his urine.

Wan Azizah said the pathologist that tested Anwar's urine said
such a high level of arsenic could not have been accidental. "His
life is in jeopardy," Karpal said.

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