Mahathir ignores advice on Anwar
Mahathir ignores advice on Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday brushed off a recommendation from Malaysia's human rights commission that his jailed deputy Anwar Ibrahim should be allowed spinal surgery overseas.
"That is Suhakam's view," he told a press conference, using the Malay acronym for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. "You cannot expect us to accept directions from Suhakam. In that case, it is better if they replace the government ... and we hand over everything to them."
The premier was quoted by the New Straits Times web page. The press conference was closed to foreign media.
Mahathir had said last week that his decision to refuse Anwar permission for an overseas operation is final.
The statement on Thursday from the officially-appointed rights commission follows a long campaign waged by Anwar's family and supporters for him to have surgery at a specialist spinal clinic in Munich.
His wife Azizah Ismail welcomed its statement. "I applaud the decision because it endorsed what we have been saying so far, that my husband has the right of choice of treatment, that it's a basic human right," she told reporters.
Anwar is serving a total of 15 years for abuse of power and sodomy but says he was framed to avert a political challenge to Mahathir.
He has become the symbol of opposition to the premier, who denies interfering in the courts.
Azizah's National Justice Party is launching a nationwide referendum-style opinion survey, involving the printing of 200,000 ballot slips, on whether Anwar should be allowed to go abroad.
Anwar was last November transferred from jail to a state-run hospital with a slipped disc which is pressing on the spinal nerve.
He was moved back to prison on May 10 after he rejected a government offer of surgery at the hospital.
Anwar insists he has the right to "less risky" endoscopic microsurgery in Munich, performed by his chosen consultant.
He has given a guarantee he would bear all the costs and return voluntarily to jail in Malaysia.
The government says the consultant can operate in Malaysia and bring in equipment or Anwar can undergo an alternative form of surgery locally. But it insists he cannot go abroad.
The rights commission said there are "no prohibitions in law" against medical treatment overseas for prisoners. It was also accepted medical practice to respect a patient's choice of treatment.
Anwar is appealing his convictions.
The commission noted that "under ordinary circumstances" a person charged with similar offenses could have been bailed pending appeal and thus gone overseas for treatment.
Doctors have said Anwar's pain will worsen without an operation and there is a slight risk of paralysis in future.