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".