DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng vouched for Anwar Ibrahim's innocence last night, saying that the Pakatan Rakyat leader had a serious back problem and questioned if he was capable of committing sodomy.
 
At the ‘Solidarity with Anwar’ ceramah in Penang last night, the Penang chief minister said he had frequently accompanied Anwar at various events and personally witnessed the PKR de facto leader suffered from back pains.
 
"He went to Germany for surgery. He was still in pain," Guan Eng told the 1,000-strong crowd at the Han Chiang High School hall last night.
 
"I, too, was in jail. We slept on cement, which was sometimes hot, sometimes, cold. Even a good back can be destroyed that way," Guan Eng recalled.
 
"I know he is wearing a brace to support his back, it's not easy to move as it is very painful," he stressed.
 
"Wearing a back brace, how could he (Anwar) be stronger than a six-foot young man to sodomise him?" Guan Eng asked to loud applause from the crowd.
 
Anwar’s back pain no secret
 
In 1998, Guan Eng was jailed 18 months under the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act for “maliciously printing false information” regarding the allegation of statutory rape of an underage Malay girl by a key political figure in Malacca.
 
Anwar, who is Permatang Pauh MP, is currently serving a five-year sentence in Sungai Buloh for sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhary Azlan, in 2008.
 
On Feb 10, the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal decision to jail Anwar, paving the way for a by-election in the opposition leader’s Permatang Pauh parliament seat in 60 days from Feb 24 - the deadline for him to seek royal pardon for his release.
 
Anwar’s back pain is no secret. On Oct 6, 2011, Dutch spine specialist Dr Thomas Hoogland testified in court that Anwar still suffered from a bad back.
 
Hoogland, 66, an orthopedic surgeon from Munich, Germany had in September, 2004 performed surgery on Anwar's spine after he was released from serving a six-year jail sentence for abuse of power related to his first sodomy charge.
 
Nasi kandar and cokodok

Meanwhile, Anwar’s second daughter Nurul Nuha and other top Pakatan leaders including DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, PAS deputy chief Mohamad Sabu, Deputy Chief Minister 1 Rashid Hasnon, Penang executive councillors Chong Eng and Dr Afif Bahardin, and former Aliran president P Ramakrishnan, took turns to speak at the event.
 
Nuha, 31, was given a standing ovation when she arrived in the middle of the event.
 
She stirred the crowd when she read Anwar’s message to Penangites, “When you eat nasi kandar (steam rice with mixed curries) or cokodok (banana fritter snacks), think of me.”
 
"He's in prison for seven days already," she said, almost tearing up.
 
She invited the crowd to join her family in the ‘March to Freedom’ campaign, reminding them that "Papa is political prisoner No 1”.
 
“But we will never surrender!" she said to loud applause, ending her brief speech and left the hall accompanied by several top Pakatan leaders.