Malaysia's Anwar moved to high-tech Sungai Buloh jail

Malaysia's Anwar moved to high-tech Sungai Buloh jail

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Sacked Malaysian finance minister Anwar Ibrahim was transferred on Wednesday to a jail outside the capital to be held on remand rather than under powerful internal security laws.

Anwar, 51, arrested on Sept. 20 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), was moved from the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to Sungai Buloh prison, 25 km to the north.

The former deputy prime minister, who had complained of neck ache from an alleged police beating at Bukit Aman, was wearing a neck-brace as he arrived in a police car.

He smiled and gave a thumbs-up sign to reporters and photographers waiting for him outside.

Police said he would be held at the prison to answer sodomy and corruption charges. He has been refused bail.

"He's going to be remanded as an ordinary remand prisoner," Musa Hassan, a spokesman for the police at Bukit Aman, told Reuters.

Sungai Buloh, the newest prison in Malaysia, is often described as "high-tech" due to security features which include closed-circuit cameras, electrical fencing and computer- controlled doors.

Those held under the ISA are not allowed to receive visitors freely. Anwar met his lawyers and family outside court for the first time last week since his arrest.

But his move to Sungai Buloh meant easier access, one of his eight lawyers said.

"I think the prison ruling is we can see him daily during office hours, except Sundays," said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified. "His family can also see him 45 minutes a week, three people at a time."

Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister and finance minister on Sept. 2, and later detained under the ISA for allegedly inciting followers to riot and topple Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, in power for 17 years.

Mahathir, 72, had called Anwar morally unfit when sacking him. A week after his arrest under the ISA, Anwar was charged in court on 10 counts of sodomy and corruption.

Anwar has denied all the charges against him, saying he is the victim of a high-level conspiracy to end his political ambitions and prevent him from exposing corruption and cronyism in the government.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has denied Anwar bail but his lawyers have appealed.

A decision to drop the use of the ISA to keep Anwar in detention could appease rights groups and foreign governments, which have accused Malaysian authorities of using the sweeping law to muzzle opponents led by the former cabinet minister.

Foreign heads of state have spoken out for Anwar, who turned up in court the first time since his arrest with a black eye and bruises, saying police had beaten him.

"Anwar being a former deputy prime minister and finance minister should not be treated like a common criminal," Philippine President Joseph Estrada said on Tuesday.

"At least during his trial he should be in house arrest only." Stanley Roth, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, who spoke in Singapore on Wednesday, was more blunt: "It is a horrifying treatment, I think, for one of the most respected of Asia's new generation of leaders."

The Far Eastern Economic Review reported on Wednesday that Anwar's 18-year-old daughter had slipped out of Malaysia to meet international leaders. The Review article will be carried in Thursday's issue.

An aide to Anwar's family, however, declined to confirm whether Nurul Izzah had made the trip. He said she was out of the city for a break with a family friend.

Malaysian officials have frowned on Anwar's supporters traveling overseas to meet foreign leaders and seek support.