PETALING JAYA, May 30 ― The government have been slow to respond to request for medical treatment by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is suffering from worsening health condition in prison, PKR leaders alleged today.

Party supreme council member Datuk Johari Abdul said the former opposition leader has lost a lot of weight and check ups found that there is a constant presence of blood in his stool, a serious medical condition which requires urgent assessment.

Authorities, however, have agreed to only allow Anwar to be hospitalised for treatment on June 2, after three weeks of repeated requests, Johari added.

“Keadilan and the family regrets that his hospitalisation has been delayed. We demand that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim be given full medical attention and care he requires.

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“The Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must must guarantee that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be allowed to remain in hospital for as long as it takes for a thorough evaluation of his health and for all necessary treatment to be given,” Johari told a press conference here.

Nurul Nuha, Anwar’s second daughter, speaking at the same press conference said her father also suffers from a full thickness tear of his right shoulder capsule, an injury that took place a from a year ago and which still causes him pain and discomfort.

“This injury requires an MRI scan, treatment, and possibly surgery for a full recovery..even a simple request for for an MRI on his shoulder had seen no response for many weeks,” she said.

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Johari said the delayed response in allowing Anwar to get medical treatment is unaccaptable as the Prisons Act clearly outlined the right for inmates to get immediately medical attention when necessary.

“This is actually SOP..the prison authority do not need to wait to get approval from the home minister”.

Anwar’s eldest daughter and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah reminded Putrajaya that the convention on treatment of prisoners must be strictly abided, especially for those deemed as political prisoners.

“Remember that Amnesty International have categorise Anwar as a prisoner of conscience,” she said.

She also said the family members until today have been denied to meet Anwar in prison and that they would continue to fight until their demand is met.

But the Lembah Pantai MP said they are willing to co-operate with the prison authority and refrain from taking a hostile approach in order to see their father.

Anwar has been behind bars since February 10, when the Federal Court upheld a ruling by a lower court that he had sodomised a former political aide.

This is the second time the former opposition leader has been incarcerated, the first time in 1999 on charges of corruption and a year later for sodomy.

The Federal Court, however, overturned his sodomy conviction in 2004.