[Anwar akan membawa Ketua Jabatan Penjara ke mahkamah kerana tidak mengizinkan beliau mendapat rawatan di luar negara. Peguam Anwar, Sankara Nair telah pun menulis surat rasmi kepada KP Penjara, En Omar minggu lepas menuntut agar Anwar dibebaskan dari penjara untuk terbang mendapatkan rawatan ke Munich.

Menurut Nair, KP Penjara berkuasa penuh untuk membebaskan sebarang pesalah atas sebab-sebab kesihatan di bawah Akta Penjara.

Suhakam pula berpendapat Anwar memang mempunyai HAK untuk terbang ke luar negara menjalani pembedahan.

Dijangka tuntutan saman ini akan difailkan minggu depan. Jika kerajaan tewas Mahathir akan dipenuhi keaiban. Seluruh rakyat Malaysia harus berdoa mengikut ugama masing-masing agar seorang insan yang sakit mendapat haknya yang sudah diperlekehkan sehingga menderita kesakitan yang boleh membawa kepada lumpuh yang mengerikan.
- Editor]

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=36601

Malaysia's Anwar challenges foreign surgery ruling

Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 18:00 JST
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim is taking the country's prisons chief to court to challenge his refusal to let him leave jail for spinal surgery abroad, Anwar's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Anwar, through his counsel Sankara Nair, wrote to Director-General of Prisons Omar Muhammad Dan a week ago demanding he be freed from the Sungai Buloh jail outside Kuala Lumpur and flown to Munich for treatment for a slipped disc.

Nair said Omar had denied the request in a letter on Tuesday, leaving Anwar no choice but to pursue legal action.

"We're now filing an action at the High Court to order the Prisons D.G. to release Anwar," Nair told Reuters, adding that the legal papers would be filed by early next week.

Nair said Omar had powers to release a prisoner for medical reasons under the Prisons Act. The prisons chief could not be contacted for comment.

The government has refused to let Anwar travel overseas for treatment of his slipped disc, saying prisoners have no such privilege.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has offered Anwar, his former deputy, the choice of any Malaysian hospital, saying specialists could be flown in from Germany to operate.

Once a prime-minister-in-waiting, Anwar is serving a 15-year jail term for corruption and sex crimes he says were plotted by Mahathir allies after he fell out with his one-time mentor.

The prime minister denies any plot against Anwar.

The country's government-established human rights commission has said Anwar had a right to travel abroad for surgery. (Reuters News)

http://livenews.lycosasia.com/cgi-bin/get.pl? pi_news_id=765609&pi_ctry=my&pi_lang=en

Malaysia Prisons Chief: Anwar Can't Go Abroad For Surgery

KUALA LUMPUR (AP)--Malaysia's prisons chief has rejected jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim's demand to be allowed abroad for spinal surgery, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Omar Muhammad Dan, the director-general of prisons, sent a letter Tuesday refusing to let Anwar travel to a clinic in Germany where he wants to undergo an operation for a slipped disc, said attorney Sankara Nair.

The refusal is in line with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's repeated statements that Anwar cannot go overseas because he is serving prison sentences totaling 15 years for corruption and s###my.

Omar's letter was in response to a formal application made by Anwar last week for the prisons department to arrange a trip for him to Munich.

Anwar said Omar had seven days to arrange the trip, or he would seek a court order telling him to do so. Anwar also said he would sue for damages if his health worsened.

Doctors say Anwar needs surgery and risks permanent disability unless he gets it soon. But Anwar and the government have wrangled for months over the type of operation and where it should be performed.

Sankara said that Omar, in his letter, rejected Anwar's claim that the Prisons Act allowed the removal overseas of a prisoner if treatment in Malaysia is inadequate.

"He says Anwar isn't eligible under prison regulations," Sankara said.

Sankara said he would file a motion next week asking the High Court to order the prison to arrange the trip. The case is expected to last one or two days.

A prison official wasn't immediately available to comment.

Anwar, who claims the injury was caused in part by a 1998 police beating, wants a less invasive method of surgery and has voiced his desire for specialist surgeon Dr. Thomas Hoogland to perform the operation at the Alpha Klinik in Munich.

But the government says Anwar should accept less specialized surgery performed locally, or bring Hoogland to Malaysia instead. Hoogland says he cannot operate in this Southeast Asian nation.

Mahathir fired Anwar in 1998 amid disputes over how the government should handle the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Anwar was subsequently convicted on corruption and s###my charges, which he claims were designed to foil his threat to Mahathir. The government denies this.