A day after being freed from prison in a dramatic court ruling, former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim obtained a passport yesterday to travel to Germany for specialized back surgery and tested the waters for a comeback in Malaysian politics.
In constant pain from a back injury, due partly to a police beating he suffered after his arrest in 1998, the wheelchair-bound Anwar was taken to the passport office yesterday morning. Aides said he hoped to fly on a jet provided by the Saudi government to Munich, Germany, late yesterday night.
Anwar deflected questions on his future but clearly was keeping all doors open, praising both the opposition parties that supported him during his six-year imprisonment and the new prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, widely seen as having allowed the courts to free him.
Abdullah's son-in-law paid a visit overnight and conveyed the prime minister's regards, Anwar told reporters.
"Prime Minister Abdullah was more concerned about my medical condition," Anwar said. "There was no other issue discussed. I truly appreciate that. At least, there is civility in political differences."
Anwar has contrasted Abdullah's willingness to allow him to be freed to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who retired and handed power to Abdullah 10 months ago.
"If it was Mahathir, I would have been finished off," Anwar told supporters Thursday night.
Mahathir, 78, was implacably hostile to Anwar after firing him Sept. 2, 1998, in a power dispute triggered by policy differences over the Asian economic crisis. Anwar refused to go quietly and led tens of thousands of people in the streets calling for Mahathir's ouster.
Anwar was arrested on security grounds Sept. 18, 1998, and beaten while chained to a cell bed by the national police chief. He was later charged with sodomy and corruption and convicted in trials widely seen as unfair. The United States and international human rights groups considered him a political prisoner.
The combative Mahathir was defiant after Thursday's ruling.
"I'm not going to lose any sleep," Mahathir told reporters. "I still believe that he's guilty. My conscience is clear."
A panel of the Federal Court voted 2-1 to overturn Anwar's conviction on sodomy, freeing him from at least five more years in prison. But Anwar remains barred from elected office for five years for a conviction of corruption, which still stands, though he has served the sentence.
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