KUALA LUMPUR: POLICE said yesterday that the wife of Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim, who was detained on Sunday under the Internal Security Act, was under investigation for sedition for suggesting that he might be injected with the Aids virus.

Police yesterday also threw a cordon around Datuk Seri Anwar's home to maintain public order.

Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's comments in television interviews on Monday "contained seditious elements which could cause hatred towards the administration of justice in Malaysia", a police spokesman said.

Datuk Anwar was detained under the ISA one day after a court found his adopted brother and a speechwriter guilty of committing sodomy with him.

He has strongly rejected the charges, swearing in the name of Allah that they were untrue and suggesting instead that the two men were tortured into confessing their crimes.

In a television interview on Monday, Dr Azizah said: "We have news to say that maybe Anwar's life is in danger because he may be given some injection of the HIV virus to prove whatever the allegations are and...in the long run to cost him his life. This is why I'm afraid [for] my husband's life."

The 46-year-old mother of six has become the de facto leader of her husband's nascent "reform movement" following his detention along with his key aides.

Just after noon yesterday, several trucks of the police field force and ordinary police cars arrived at her home in Damansara Heights and cleared away supporters who had been gathering there since Datuk Anwar was sacked at the beginning of the month.

"It is not to intimidate or frighten the people. They are free to come and show sympathy. We just don't want them to stand outside the house to create a disturbance for other residents," a senior officer said.

However, the police and City Hall officials cleared away about 200 supporters who were gathered at the house, as well as the various stallholders who had set up shop in the neighbourhood to serve the thousands gathering there nightly.

Dr Azizah told reporters yesterday that the police had warned her for the second time not to hold any rallies and hinted to her that she might be arrested for inciting unrest.

"There will not be any more public meetings," she said, adding: "I will still meet the press."

She brushed aside criticisms of her comments about her husband's health.

"Don't I have the right as a Malaysian citizen, of one who has been detained, to actually voice my protest? Don't I have the right to ask as a concerned person in a free democratic country? I have the right to say these things," she said.