On March 9, a Free Anwar petition entitled, “Make the release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from prison a top priority for US policy toward Malaysia” was removed from the White House portal.
In response to the matter, PKR Vice President, Tian Chua tweeted as below, blaming the Malaysian government for the removal of the petition.
On March 10, the petition was restored, and Astro Awani published an official statement from the U.S. Embassy statement saying:
“On March 9, White House standard fraud checks indicated a high number of anomalous signatures on a petition related to the imprisonment of de facto leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
There were multiple petitions related to this issue, and after follow-up assessment, the White House determined that the petition it removed was not the one that contained fraudulent signatures.
To account for the error, the White House has since re-enabled the petition titled “Make the Release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from Prison a Top Priority for U.S. Policy toward Malaysia,” and is extending the deadline to account for the time lost while the petition was disabled.
No signatures were removed.”