According to an Amnesty International report (AI) [press release] on Friday, “the ongoing political persecution of Anwar Ibrahim is symbolic of Malaysia’s crackdown on human rights.” According to Josef Benedict, AI’s Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Anwar has spent two years in prison on politically-motivated charges. Since Anwar’s conviction, Malaysian government attacks on civil society have reportedly increased. The Malaysian government has strengthened its attack on citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly through harassment, intimidation, arrest, and prosecution of activists favoring Anwar’s immediate release, says AI. Benedict said:

The longer Anwar Ibrahim and other prisoners of conscience remain behind bars, the clearer it becomes that the government has no interest in upholding its international human rights obligations and commitments and instead wishes to use its power to silence anyone it disagrees with.

A clear indication of this, according to the AI report, is Prime Minister Najib Razak strengthening of the Malaysia’s Sedition laws [press release].

Anwar was convicted of sodomy in 2014 less than a year after he led a three-party opposition alliance [JURIST report] to massive electoral gains in 2013. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined [JURIST report] that Anwar’s imprisonment was political and urged his immediate release. The Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted Anwar in January 2012, but an appeals court overturned the acquittal [JURIST reports] and sentenced Anwar to five years in prison. The opposition leader was arrested in July 2008 after he filed a lawsuit against his accuser [JURIST report] a month earlier. In January the Malaysian court of appeal ruled that Anwar Ibrahim can continue to challenge the rejection of his petition for a royal pardon [JURIST report]. Following his conviction others have faced persecution. In April 2015 a Malaysian cartoonist known for his political caricatures was charged with nine counts of sedition [JURIST report] over a series of tweets criticizing the country’s judiciary. In March of that year Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter was arrested for acts of sedition [JURIST report]. September 2014 a Malaysian professor was charged with sedition [JURIST report] for his opinion on a political crisis that occurred five years prior.