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Family Barred From Visiting Malaysia’s Sick Anwar
JAKARTA (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - Anwar Ibrahim, the jailed former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, is reportedly sick and hospitalized. However, his family is not allowed to visit the hospital where he is being treated for a back injury.
Anwar’s wife, and member of Parliament, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also the leader of the National Justice Party (NJP), and his children have been flatly refused any visit to the ailing leader.
Anwar was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after he was diagnosed as having a slipped disc, which may force the postponement of his December 11th appeal against convictions on corruption and abuse of power charges.
The conviction gave him a six-year jail sentence, which he is serving concurrently with another sentence nine-year sentence after being found guilty for sodomy.
His wife, Wan Azizah, injured and confined to a wheel chair, said one of her daughters, 15-year-old Nurul Nuha, had been stopped at gunpoint when she tried to defy the authorities and visit her father.
''The guard showed his gun and said 'you move','' Wan Azizah said on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Anwar was refused a visit to his ailing mother who was hospitalized for more than a month. The NJP said Anwar wanted to visit his mother but was not allowed as he is being treated like an ordinary prisoner.
Anwar, who is currently in traction, a therapy where the legs are raised and the waist strapped with weights to ease tension on the back, is being held under tight security. Doctors attending him cannot be reached for comment, the Reuters news agency reported.
It said his family and lawyers had been allowed to see him initially, but since Monday the family has been barred. The family has been told they were only allowed scheduled visits of 45 minutes each twice monthly as permitted by the Sungai Buloh prison.
The family was allowed to visit Anwar when he was in hospital last year for suspected arsenic poisoning. Anwar was also allowed to go to the graveyard for the final rites of his elder brother who passed away during the 1999 General Election campaign.
Anwar’s lawyers are suspected of trying to stall the hearing of Anwar’s appeal until Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Eusoff Chin retires on December 19th. Anwar has criticized the judge for alleged improprieties and partiality.
The judge has been under probe for alleged connivance with a lawyer for whom it is said he presided most of the cases at court. The lawyer is said to have won all the cases were judge Chin was presiding.
Judge Eusoff was not on the three-member panel of the Federal Court, the country's highest court, which postponed Anwar's case on Monday. But the chief justice's designated successor, Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, was one of the judges.
If Anwar loses the appeal, his only hope would be a royal pardon from Malaysia's Sultan Salahuddin Aziz, the constitutional head of the country. It is, however, certain that if Anwar wins any of his appeal, the Attorney General of Malaysia will open other cases that are currently under scrutiny.
Anwar's wife said on Tuesday that his slipped disc was quite serious. ''He actually feels a numbness on his back,'' Wan Azizah said.
During his first trial last year, Anwar constantly claimed he suffered from intense headache. Judge Jaka allowed him to be under medical observation and postponed the case several times.
Anwar has been jailed for a total of 15 years on separate counts of corruption and sodomy - charges he says are trumped up. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad removed him from office in 1998 in an unexpected move.
His downfall from the government and the ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), has been fatal for the party, which lost a large share of its Malay electorate to the united opposition front, the Alternative Front (AF).
The party also lost the oil rich state of Terengganu to the Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).
Anwar says he is a victim of a plot by Mahathir Mohamad's associates to destroy his political career. Mahathir denies the charges, saying Anwar was morally unfit to succeed him.
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