Supporters of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim rallied in front of the Japanese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday to protest his eviction from Japan at the weekend, while the embassy blamed the episode on Mr Anwar's "misunderstanding" of entry requirements.
About a dozen members of Mr Anwar's People's Justice Party held placards calling for a boycott of Japanese products to protest Japanese authorities' refusal to allow Mr Anwar to enter the country after he arrived there from Malaysia on Sunday.
"Why is Japan following this kind of trend as a democratic and developed country?" the party's youth wing chief Shamsul Iskandar told reporters after handing over a protest letter to embassy officials.
"There must be a sense of respect. He (Anwar) is the opposition leader," Mr Shamsul said, adding that even if the ban was merely a result of technicality, "we want a published apology from the Japanese government."
Mr Anwar, in a statement issued Sunday, said he was "forcibly evicted from Japan" after arriving at Narita Airport earlier that day from Kuala Lumpur, being told by immigration authorities "to board the first flight back home or face deportation."
"When I asked why I was not allowed to enter, they told me that it was because of my previous conviction in 1999," he said. In 1999, Mr Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister and jailed on corruption charges, which he says were trumped up to thwart his political rise.
"I told them this could not be a valid reason on account of the fact that prior to this I had already entered Tokyo without hindrance on three previous occasions in 2006, 2009 and 2012," he said.
Mr Anwar suggested the Malaysian government was behind what happened at Narita and demanded an explanation from Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.
Source: NewsOnJapan
