Mahathir calls Anwar poisoning claim ridiculous

Mahathir calls Anwar poisoning claim ridiculous

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said it was "ridiculous" for former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim to allege he was poisoned in jail, but the hospital treating him said it could not ignore the claim.

"This arsenic thing is really a ridiculous allegation," Mahathir was quoted on Wednesday as saying in an interview in the Asian Wall Street Journal.

"That is not the culture of Malaysia. We don't kill our political opponents."

His comments came as Anwar remained at the National University Hospital for the third straight week undergoing treatment for severe headaches, variable blood pressure and a lung problem.

Doctors are trying to verify his allegation on Sept. 10 that political opponents had tried to poison him with arsenic.

Anwar has said the level of arsenic in his urine, tested by a lab in Melbourne, Australia, from a sample smuggled outside the country in August was 77 times higher than normal.

But Mahathir told the Asian Wall Street Journal: "He had this very minute amount of arsenic in his urine which is compatible with the ingestion of some seafood."

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said he regretted Mahathir had made up his mind about Anwar's condition before the doctors had given their opinion. "It shows that the prime minister has no respect for the truth," Lim said in a statement.

Lim called on Wednesday for an independent inquiry into the health of Anwar and his treatment in prison amid a further delay in his trial.

The secretary-general of the Democratic Action Party, said an inquiry had become more urgent after Mahathir criticized Anwar's claims that he was suffering from arsenic poisoning.

Lim criticized Mahathir for disregarding advice by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, that everyone should withhold comment on the alleged poisoning until the result of an official investigation is known.

The National University Hospital said it had the results of its own tests on Anwar's hair, urine and fingernail specimen, as well as those done by an Australian laboratory.

It said it was awaiting results from a London laboratory, and it could not rule out Anwar's allegation he was poisoned until it collated the different results.

"We have to treat him as a patient with possible poisoning and cannot do any less," hospital director Khalid Abdul Kadir said in a letter to the New Sunday Times newspaper and obtained by Reuters.

The pro-government newspaper questioned why the hospital had taken more than two weeks to assess Anwar's condition.

It said the hospital was part of a university which houses some of Anwar's most radical supporters and there could be doubts about its findings given that Anwar had received "almost red carpet treatment" on his arrival there.

Khalid said in his letter that as a doctor, he needed to have a good relationship with his patients. "That does not mean we are not politically impartial," he said.