Anwar's back injury worsens as court appeal postponed

Anwar's back injury worsens as court appeal postponed

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Jailed Malaysian rebel politician Anwar Ibrahim has sustained a
worsening of a spinal injury as he faces another delay in his
final appeal against a sodomy conviction, his wife said on
Tuesday.

Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said a medical team that examined her
husband on Monday found his spinal condition had deteriorated and
threatened to impair his kidneys.

Anwar has been in prison since falling out with then prime
minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998, when his arrest on abuse of
power and sodomy charges sparked street protests and calls for
political reform.

"There was a consensus that his condition has deteriorated,"
Wan Azizah told a news conference held with a variety of local
human rights groups campaigning for Anwar to be freed and allowed
to travel overseas for back surgery.

The government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who
took over from Mahathir last October, has said Anwar should be
treated in Malaysia, an option rejected by the family.

"The government's contention is that we have whatever
specialists available locally. If you don't want your surgery to
be conducted by a local surgeon, why can't you bring your surgeon
here?" said a government spokesman, who asked not to be
identified.

Wan Azizah, a physician herself, said the family was adamant
about seeking surgery in Germany and appealed directly to
Abdullah, whose wife is undergoing breast cancer treatment in the
United States.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's top court has postponed indefinitely its
verdict on a sodomy appeal by Anwar, who has been hospitalized
since last week, his counsel said on Tuesday.

"The court has taken off Anwar's case on July 22. It did not
fix a new date," Sankara Nair told AFP, adding that the Federal
Court did not give any reason for the move.

In a separate development, an international human rights group
on Tuesday urged the leaders of the United States, France and
Britain to press visiting Abdullah to end detention without
trial.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said that since the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks "the U.S. and other Western governments turned
a blind eye to Malaysias abuses" under the feared Internal
Security Act (ISA).

Abdullah held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in
Washington on Monday and goes on to meet French President Jacques
Chirac on Wednesday and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on
Friday.

Human Rights Watch said the U.S. government, "formerly a vocal
critic" of Malaysia's use of detention without trial, now praised
the country for its support in the so-called "war on terror."

Washington's silence on detentions "demonstrates a reluctance
to criticize practices similar to those used by the United
States," the statement said, referring to terror suspects held at
Guantanamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq.

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