Petition to release Malaysia’s Anwar set up on White House website

An online petition has been started on the White House’s website in support of jailed Malaysian opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The petition is urging the U.S. government to seek his release from a five-year-jail term for sodomy. It has so far secured more than 3,000 signatures and has until March 12 to reach the 100,000-threshold mark that is required to prompt a White House response. On Tuesday, the Malaysian Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s conviction of Anwar for sodomising his former political aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, also keeping a five-year jail sentence.

Anwar is a political prisoner. The future of democracy in Malaysia is at stake. Securing Anwar’s release from prison must be a top priority in U.S. policy towards Malaysia, to be advanced in every way possible.

Petition on the White House website calling for Anwar’s release

The petition, which was set up by a “J.M.” from Alexandria in Virginia yesterday, described Anwar as a “political prisoner” who was jailed and convicted on “trumped-up charges”. The ‘We the People’ site where the petition was posted was initiated in 2011 by the Obama administration. This is not the first time that a petition regarding Malaysian events were started on the page, with a petition started in May 2013 to protest against alleged fraud during the country’s 13th general election. There is no guarantee that the petition will receive any response from the Obama administration. The White House website said if a petition gets enough support, its staff would review it and ensure it was sent to the appropriate policy experts. It would also release an official response.

World Anwar Ibrahim