[JURIST] The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [official website] has determined that the imprisonment of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim [BBC profile] was political and has urged his immediate release, according to a copy of their report released Monday by Anwar’s family. Anwar was sentenced [JURIST report] in March to five years in prison for sodomy. The Malaysian government rejected the findings [Al Jazeera report] of the UN group, stating that the legal process should be respected. However, Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah, expressed gratitude to the organization for its findings. The UN had previously stated [press release] that the charge on which Anwar was convicted is “a crime that should not exist under international human rights law.”

Anwar has continually denied [JURIST report] the sodomy charge. The Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted Anwar in January 2012, but an appeals court overturned the acquittal [JURIST report] and sentenced Anwar to five years in prison. The opposition leader was arrested in July 2008 after he filed a lawsuitagainst his accuser [JURIST reports] a month earlier. In December 2010 Anwar filed a complaint [JURIST report] in a Malaysian court over a WikiLeaks cable published by Australian newspapers stating he had engaged in sodomy. Anwar was Malaysia’s deputy prime minister under former Mahathir Mohamad until he was fired in 1998 following earlier sodomy charges of which he was initially convicted but later acquitted. He reentered Malaysian politics following the expiration of a 10-year ban [JURIST report] against him for unrelated corruption charges.