Backers of Malaysia's Anwar spurn report
Backers of Malaysia's Anwar spurn report
By Nelson Graves
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Doctors on three continents may have
concluded Malaysia's jailed former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim
was not poisoned, but there was no convincing his supporters.
"A lot of questions are left unanswered," Anwar's lawyer
Christopher Fernando on Tuesday told the High Court where the
charismatic ex-minister is standing trial on a sodomy count.
He was responding to a report by 12 doctors who said Anwar
showed no signs of poisoning, as he had alleged on September 10
when he dropped a political bombshell in High Court.
The reluctance by Anwar's backers to turn the page on the
poisoning saga reflects the deep political divide that has opened
up in Malaysia since Asia's financial crisis erupted in 1997.
After months of feuding, the government and its opponents have
virtually no common ground, not even a dry medical report by
doctors entrusted with Anwar's care.
The report released at Anwar's sodomy trial summarized work by
laboratories in Kuala Lumpur, London and Perth in Western
Australia.
The tests concluded Anwar had "acceptable" levels of arsenic,
mercury, lead and thallium.
"Basically, his ranges are normal," a local doctor who
reviewed the report told Reuters.
The report would appear to be a victory for Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad, who wasted no time last month in dismissing
Anwar's poisoning allegation as a "ridiculous" ploy to spark
street demonstrations ahead of general elections expected soon.
Authorities have shown little inclination to sympathize with
Anwar, who says he is the victim of a conspiracy led by Mahathir
to cut short his political career.
A police official said on Monday that authorities might take
action should it be proven Anwar and his wife, Wan Azizah Wan
Ismail, had lodged false reports with police alleging poisoning.
There was no explanation of the apparent discrepancy between the
results of the medical tests conducted last month and those done
secretly in August at a laboratory in Melbourne.
Anwar's lawyers said the tests in Melbourne on a sample of
Anwar's urine showed he had 70 times the normal level of arsenic.
Anwar's allegations prompted High Court Judge Arifin Jaka, who is
presiding over the ex-minister's sodomy trial which got under way
in June, to suspend the case until the National University
Hospital declared him fit to attend.
Anwar was shifted back to jail from the hospital on Monday
evening after doctors said he was fit enough to go to trial.
From the start, Anwar's allegations have been mired in a
controversy pregnant with political implications.
The government questioned why there was a delay of some three
weeks between the time Anwar's urine was smuggled out of Malaysia
in August and when he made his allegation. Anwar's wife said the
tests took time.
Authorities questioned why the urine sample was attributed to
a 59-year-old patient named Subramaniam, and not to 52-year-old
Anwar. Anwar's lawyers said it was to protect Anwar.
Local newspapers controlled by interests tied to Mahathir's
governing coalition questioned whether the National University
Hospital where Anwar stayed for three weeks until Monday has
shown bias towards the ex-minister -- a charge which the hospital
has forcefully rejected.
Suspicion runs deep on both sides. Opposition leader Lim Kit
Siang said nagging doubts would persist over Anwar's health.
He recalled Mahathir initially suggested that head injuries which
Anwar suffered after his arrest last year were self-inflicted.
Five months later, the former police chief admitted to an
independent commission that he had hit Anwar.
Lim cited Anwar's gaunt appearance -- his lawyer said he had
lost 12 kilograms -- as well as his erratic blood pressure and
headaches.
The opposition leader called on Mahathir's cabinet to set up a
royal commission of inquiry so the arsenic case "would not become
the biggest unresolved political mystery of the century".