(Sept 29): Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) is urging authorities to set politics aside and provide Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the medical treatment he needs for the injury on his shoulder.

LFL executive director Eric Paulsen said the jailed PKR de facto chief had the right to proper medical treatment and that his needs should not be politicised.

"Doctors’ first and foremost responsibility is the best interests of the patient and they must set aside any 'political' considerations they may have and treat him solely as medical professionals with his best interests at heart.

"Further, the government has a duty to ensure that international standards such as the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules) which were recently revised in 2015 are complied with," Paulsen said in a statement today.

He said Rule 24 required that prisoners enjoy the same standards of healthcare available in the community, while Rule 27 required that prisoners who need specialised treatment or surgery be transferred to specialised institutions or civil hospitals.

Paulsen said Anwar was still on painkillers and unable to undergo the necessary intensive physiotherapy for his his chronic rotator cuff injury.

He said this was because no such facilities existed in prison, and the authorities refused to bring Anwar to hospital for treatment on a regular basis.

"Anwar is a prisoner of conscience and he deserves better treatment than what he is currently receiving.

"We therefore call upon the authorities to provide Anwar with immediate medical treatment to meet his specialised medical needs and to ensure that his health does not deteriorate further."

Meanwhile, Anwar's lawyers, Latheefa Koya and N. Surendran, in a separate statement rebuffed the Health Ministry's claim that the jailed politician was receiving adequate treatment.

"(Anwar) has still not received treatment, and remains in constant pain while his condition worsens daily," they said.

They said it had taken three months since Anwar began pleading for treatment before the first MRI was done, and only yesterday had consultation for a second opinion been allowed.

"While it is positive that this has finally been done, the ministry still remains silent as to why this consultation was so long delayed despite DSAI and family's constant requests."

Latheefa and Surendran said the health director-general had so far avoided giving a response to complaints about these delays since Anwar's imprisonment in February.

They also repeated the family's demand that Health Deputy Director-General Tan Sri Dr S. Jeyaindran be removed as leader of the medical team and physician, for being a prosecution witness against Anwar in his first sodomy case.

Anwar is serving a five-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh jail for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar’s family and lawyers have urged Putrajaya to provide swift medical treatment for Anwar, who is said to be suffering from weight loss, irregular blood pressure, a growth in the kidney, gastritis, arthritis and a shoulder muscle tear.

His lawyers had previously asked for him to be placed under house arrest for better access to medical care. In July, he was hospitalised for several days.

The Malaysian Insider recently reported that Nurul Izzah Anwar had gone to the United States for help in an attempt to pile pressure on Putrajaya for her father to undergo an urgent shoulder operation.

The Lembah Pantai MP said she had to resort to this because Putrajaya seemed to be delaying Anwar’s treatment despite the panel of doctors who had recommended immediate surgery.

However, the Health Ministry says Anwar is receiving appropriate treatment from 17 clinical experts. – The Malaysian Insider