Anwar needs urgent back operation: wife
Jailed ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is in pain and requires urgent treatment for his back, allegedly injured while he was in detention, his wife and legal counsel said today.
Anwar wants to have the operation done in Germany, but the government has refused to allow him to travel overseas, saying the procedure can be performed locally.
"Yes, it is urgent. But he is enduring all this since he is not allowed to go to a hospital of his choice," his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who heads the opposition Keadilan, told AFP .
Anwar, once heir apparent to Mahathir, is expected to be taken to a public hospital today to have his back checked by government doctors.
His counsel Sankara Nair said this was an attempt by authorities to convince the former deputy premier to agree to have an operation done locally.
"Anwar's back pain has been acting up lately and becoming more chronic," he said.
Check-up rescheduled
Anwar needs to have an operation to repair a prolapsed disc in his spine which hinders his movement.
He was originally scheduled to go for the check-up on Monday but, because the authorities informed him of this late, he was unable to consume sufficient pain-killers to attend the check-up, his wife said.
"He needs to take strong analgesics to endure the long journey from prison to the hospital," Wan Azizah said.
The road journey from the Sungai Buloh prison takes about an hour.
Wan Azizah had said Anwar's injuries may have been inflicted by police beatings after his arrest in 1998.
Anwar is serving a total of 15 years in jail after having been convicted for abuse of powers and sodomy. He says he was framed to avert a political challenge to Mahathir, an allegation denied by the government. AFP
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