Jailed Malaysian opposition leader’s family seeks royal pardon

The family of jailed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday they had filed for a royal pardon two weeks after the 67-year-old former deputy prime minister was sent back to jail for five years. Malaysia’s highest court on Feb. 10 rejected an appeal by the politician, who long posed the greatest threat to the long-ruling coalition, against a sodomy conviction, upholding a five-year prison term. Anwar, the ruling party’s rising star in the mid-1990s before he fell out with then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, denied the charge that led to his second conviction for sodomy as a fabrication aimed at ending his political career.

The court may have pronounced a guilty verdict but our father is innocent. We placed our confidence in the constitutional process and believe that justice will prevail when all the facts are scrutinized without political intervention.

Nurul Nuha Anwar, politician and daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim

The case was widely seen as politically motivated to eliminate threats to the ruling coalition, whose popularity has eroded in the last two elections. Anwar, who was seen as the most potent political threat to the government, was accused of sodomizing a former lowly aide in 2008. Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and by whipping, although prosecutions are rare. It was the second time Anwar was jailed for sodomy in just over a decade. He previously was imprisoned for six years after being ousted as deputy prime minister in 1998 on earlier charges of sodomizing his former family driver and abusing his power. He was freed in 2004 after the top court quashed that sodomy conviction.

The application can be viewed as a humanitarian gesture by the family, who is worried about his health.

Ibrahim Suffian, political analyst with the Merdeka Centre think-tank

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