KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is appealing for Putrajaya to allow him to visit imprisoned Indian rights leader P Uthayakumar whose health is said to have deteriorated following allegations that he had been denied access to medical treatment.
Lim called on Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to show some humanity by allowing him to visit and check on Uthayakumar’s condition after the Kajang prison department had earlier rejected his request to meet the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) chief.
“I’m appealing, on humanitarian grounds, as a human and as an ex-convict, please let me visit him. We should not let our political differences take away our humanity,” he told a press conference at the party’s headquarters here.
Uthayakumar, the leader of Hindraf, reportedly suffers from prolapsed disc, a degenerative disc disease of the spinal lumbar which causes severe back pains.
His wife, S Indra Devi, alleged the prison department had refused to provide medical attention to her husband.
In an emotional media conference, she alleged that despite recommendations from at least four doctors, prison officials have continued to deny Uthayakumar access to a pillow or even a chair, forcing him to sleep on a very thin foam mattress.
The Kajang prison department denied the allegation and insisted that Uthayakumar had been given medical treatment nine times since his admission.
Responding to claims that Uthayakumar has been mistreated at the Kajang prison, Zahid told detractors not to demand “special treatment” for the Indian rights activist as he receives the same facilities as the other prisoners.
“I assure you that the facilities being accorded to Uthayakumar are the same as those made accessible to other prisoners.
“We do not increase or decrease in the way we treat the prisoners, so don’t ask for special treatment for anyone.
“If he is ill, medical treatment will be given according to the standard operating procedure of the Prisons Department,” he said.
Lim, a former detainee in the same Kajang prison where Uthayakumar is currently serving his sentence for sedition, said he empathises with the former Hindraf leader as he received the same treatment when he was locked up there in 1998.
The Penang CM had subsequently urged Putrajaya to abide by international laws in the treatment of prisoners.
