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.