PUTRAJAYA: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said she and her family are grateful to celebrate this year’s Hari Raya Aidilfitri with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim outside prison.
Anwar was released from prison in May after receiving a full pardon from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V.
He was to serve a five-year jail sentence beginning in 2015 after being accused of sodomy.
“It was different without my husband around. Six years ago, when he was in prison in Sungai Buloh, we were allowed to visit him on the first day of Hari Raya and it was a contact visit.
“We would bring food in separate containers and the security would put it in one. But in the last three years, we were not allowed.
“We would be told that the first and second days of Hari Raya were public holidays.
“So, we would visit on the fourth day but there would be too many people.
“So, we would visit him on the fifth day and there’s no contact visit. It’s tough on the grandchildren.
“This year, we went for Hari Raya prayers and spent the day at my father’s house and at my mother-in-law’s. My father-in-law has passed on.”
On whether the grandchildren found it awkward that Anwar was home, she said: “Not really because we brought them to the hospital. They asked why their grandfather was in jail, but we dodged their question. How do we tell them? Only bad people go to jail.”
Reports by Fauziah Ismail, Azura Abas and Tasnim Lokman
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