The Prime Minister's Office today told the United Nations Working Group on Arbirary Detention to respect Malaysia's legal processes.
This comes after the group condemned Anwar's five-year jail sentence for sodomy, and urged for his release.
"Anwar was convicted of a crime, and this was a criminal and not a political case. It has nothing to do with the government," it said in a statement late today.
"We call on all parties, including those overseas, to respect legal process, the judgment of Malaysia’s courts and the rights of the victim to seek justice."
It said Anwar's case exhausted all legal avenues, up to the final appeal at the Federal Court.
It added that the aggrieved party in this case was not the government, but complainant Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
“Malaysia has an independent judiciary – with many rulings going against senior government figures – and the government does not have the power or authority to overrule the decisions of the courts," it said.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Anwar's jailing was unnecessary and his suffering arbitrary, given the circumstances of the case.
“The Working Group considers that the adequate remedy would be to release Anwar immediately, and ensure that his political rights that were removed based on his arbitrary detention be reinstated," it said.
The opinion of the UN group was read out by PKR's Padang serai MP N Surendran at a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
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