Anwar and family want physical contact ban lifted during prison visits

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Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his wife Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, their four children and four grandchildren today filed an application for judicial review of the prison director’s decision banning physical contact during visits.

They named the Sungai Buloh Prison director, the Commissioner General of Prisons and the Minister of Home Affairs as the respondents.

Anwar,68, Wan Azizah,63, and daughters Nurul Izzah,35, Nurul Nuha,32, Nurul Ilham,28, and Nurul Iman, 25, filed the application via Messrs Daim & Gamany in the High Court Registrar’s office.

The other applicants were Nurul Izzah’s children, Raja Nur Safiyah Raja Ahmad Shahrir Iskandar,9, and Raja Ahmad Harith,7, and Nurul Nuha’s children, Sulaimaan Mohamad Khairul,4, and Yahya,3.

The application filed by counsel N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya sought a declaration that the prison director’s decision on March 14 which banned  physical contact between Anwar and all family members be quashed.

They claimed that during the once every three weeks prison visits, they were separated by a glass wall and the conversation was only made via telephone.

Anwar is serving a five years’ jail sentence after being found guilty of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

In a letter dated March 2, Anwar applied to the three respondents to allow physical contact during visits but said the prison director denied the application via a letter dated March 14.

All the applicants claimed the physical contact ban caused suffering, was unreasonable, invalid and in violation of the Prisons Act 1995, the Prison Regulations 2000 and Articles 5 and 8 of the Federal Constitution. – Bernama