Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says opposition leader’s treatment in jail violates prohibitions against torture and demands he be freed immediately

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A United Nations body made up of human rights experts has found the detention of Malaysia’s de facto opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, to be illegal and declared that he should be freed, his family has said.

“The Working Group considers that the adequate remedy would be to release Mr Ibrahim immediately, and ensure that his political rights that were removed based on his arbitrary detention be reinstated,” said the report by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, released by Anwar’s family on Monday.

It said Anwar’s treatment in prison had violated international prohibitions against “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

Anwar’s supporters have said he is incarcerated in a dirty prison cell without sufficient medical care after he developed shoulder pain that has affected his spine.

Sivarasa Rasiah, a member of Anwar’s legal team, told the Guardian he filed a complaint to the UN group this summer, which prompted the report.

“We considered Anwar’s detention completely bizarre from the outset and completely politically motivated,” he said. “Unfortunately we reached a dead end in the local judicial system. We are gratified that the UN working group condemned the detention.”



The 68-year-old was jailed in February for five years on a charge of sodomy, which is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia. He denied the charge and said the ruling party had framed him to end a streak of opposition gains that threatened the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since 1957.

“I maintain my innocence. This to me is a fabrication coming from a political conspiracy to stop my political career,” Anwar said at the time.

Heading a three-party alliance, Anwar helped the opposition make huge gains in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. Prime minister Najib Razak’s coalition lost the popular vote in 2013 – the opposition bloc’s best ever results – but kept a parliamentary majority.

“I am deeply grateful that the United Nations has called for Anwar’s release,” Nurul Izzah Anwar, his daughter who is also a member of parliament, said on Monday.

“Its strong stance in solidarity with my father sends a clear and unequivocal message to prime minister Najib Razak, and ensures that the sharp decline in human rights under his administration will not go unnoticed.”

A Malaysian government spokesperson told the Guardian: “Malaysia has an independent judiciary – with many rulings going against senior government figures – and the government does not have the power or authority to overrule the decisions of the courts.

“It was not the government but the victim, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a private individual and Anwar Ibrahim’s employee, that lodged the police report and brought the case. Mr Anwar was convicted of a crime, and this was a criminal not a political case. It had nothing to do with the government.”

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Anwar had served as deputy prime minister of Malaysia from 1993 to 1998 as a member of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party. However, his relationship with then-leader and mentor Mahathir Mohamad broke down and he was jailed for corruption and an earlier sodomy charge.

Mahathir told the Guardian in an interview last month that he had intended for Anwar to take over the country’s top post after his two decades in office.

“I wanted him to succeed me, I brought him up,” Mahathir said. “But with his faulty moral character I don’t think he was suitable to become prime minister. I sacked him with the consent of the party.”

The deputy home minister, Nur Jazlan Mohamed, said on Monday that Anwar receives “special treatments” in jail not afforded to other inmates. He said Anwar was allowed to attend his father’s funeral and also meet with Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission last month.

“He received special treatments which were not accorded to other inmates and I hope that his family will understand that the government will always take care of his health,” Nur Jazlan was quoted as saying in the MalayMail, adding that three orthopaedics experts had inspected the prisoner.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report