Anwar hospitalised for medical treatment

PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expected to be hospitalised for several days at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. – The Malaysian Insider filepic, July 7, 2015.

Former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was brought to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) for a medical examination and is expected to be hospitalised there for a few days, amid reports that his health was worsening while in prison.

PKR communications chief Fahmi Fadzil said that Anwar's family was informed of his transfer from Sungai Buloh Prison to the hospital this afternoon, and his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan ismail was allowed to meet Anwar earlier today.

"Anwar will be placed in a separate ward and will be at HKL for a few days. He will be given intensive physiotherapy for a shoulder pain, his blood pressure will be monitored, and a CT scan will be conducted for his kidney," Fahmi said in a statement this evening.

The PKR de facto leader is also said to have lost 6kg since the start of his jail sentence for sodomy in February, his lawyer R. Sivarasa had said last month.

Anwar also has irregular blood pressure, a 4cm growth on the kidney, gastritis, chronic arthritis and a shoulder muscle tear.

Sivarasa and lawyer Jared Genser of the Freedom Now organisation had last month said that the government should allow Anwar to be placed under house arrest instead, so that he could have access to regular medical care. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/anwars-health-worsens-requires-house-arrest-says-lawyers

Anwar began a five-year prison sentence on February 10, when the Federal Court quashed his appeal and upheld his conviction for sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.

Sivarasa and Genser in their statement on June 30, said, "Anwar is being held in solitary confinement in a bare cell, having a bucket for bathing, a squat toilet, and being held in hot and humid conditions with minimal ventilation. These are exacerbating his health problems.

"In addition, he has received only rare family visits, despite a doctor recommending he be allowed to see his family weekly. Requested visits with counsel are often denied."

Anwar and his lawyer maintained that the sodomy charges and conviction were a political conspiracy to end his political career and Sivarasa reiterated those claims today.

Amnesty International has designated the former opposition leader a prisoner of conscience, calling the court's judgment against him an attempt to silence government critics.

Dr Wan Azizah replaced him as opposition leader after he began his jail sentence.

- TMI