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.