*Ø* Family begs for Anwar surgery

USA support enlisted for struggle

"WASHINGTON: As Malaysia's ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim grimaces in pain in prison, his daughter Nurul Izzah is in the US lobbying for support to have him travel to Germany for critical back surgery.

"The determined 23-year-old has met officials at the White House, the State Department and Congress as well as human rights groups, asking them to persuade Kuala Lumpur to allow Anwar to seek treatment abroad.

"Anwar, regarded by the US as a political prisoner and as a 'prisoner of conscience' by rights group Amnesty International, was rushed to hospital from prison this month due to complications from a damaged spinal disc, which he said was caused by a police beating after his arrest in 1998.

"The charismatic Anwar was heir apparent to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad but fell out of favour and was sacked in 1998 and later jailed on charges he says were trumped up to prevent him from making a challenge.

"Anwar has already spent more than five years in jail, having completed a sentence for corruption and begun serving a nine-year term for sodomy, a criminal offence in predominantly Muslim Malaysia."
Source: The Australian

Background

"Anwar has described both charges as fabrications intended to remove him as a political rival to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose administration is alleged by him to be riddled with corruption."
Source: BBC News

Anwar Ibrahim and Other Detainees Tortured by Police
Official Site of International Free Anwar Ibrahim Campaign
Free Anwar Ibrahim Google links
Anwar Ibrahim at Wikipedia

Anwar Ibrahim has been held in solitary confinement for most of the past 2,138 days of imprisonment.