‘Now I have freed him,’ says Malaysia’s Mahathir as Anwar walks
From prison to the palace: reformist icon expected to take over from new Prime Minister within the next two years talks of a ‘new dawn for Malaysia’ following royal pardon
Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian political veteran who helped build the Pakatan Harapan coalition that swept to power in elections last week, has been freed after being jailed during the tenure of the scandal-haunted deposed premier Najib Razak.
The 70-year-old, who was granted a full pardon by the country’s King Muhammad V. Anwar, had been serving a five year jail term – his second prison sentence in two decades – for a sodomy conviction he says was trumped up.
PM MAHATHIR: ‘I FREED ANWAR’
“In the past it was said that I put him in prison. Now I have freed him,” Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, after Anwar’s release.
Anwar was Mahathir’s deputy premier during his first stint as prime minister, before he was sacked in 1998 and later imprisoned for sodomy and corruption.
Anwar maintains that, like his latest conviction, that prison sentence was a result of trumped up charges to remove him from frontline politics.
Anwar on Wednesday said he had forgiven Mahathir, 92, adding that it was the current premier who helped facilitate his release.
