The Federal Court today fixed Dec 11 to hear the appeal of jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim against his conviction on four counts of corruption for which he was sentenced to six years in jail.

The appeal was to be heard today but was postponed after the court was informed of Anwar's admission to the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital for a back injury.

Anwar's leading counsel, Raja Aziz Addruse, told the court that Anwar was admitted on Nov 24 would need to undergo treatment for at least two weeks.

The prosecution, led by senior deputy public prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail, did not object to the postponement.

The general hospital had also sent a letter on Anwar's admission to the Attorney-General's Chambers and the Sungai Buloh Prison authorities.

The hospital's Consultant Pulmonary Critical Care physician Dr S Jeyaindran stated in the letter that Anwar was suffering from a "prolapse of the disc with severe compression of the nerve root" (slipped disc) and would have to undergo treatment for at least two weeks.

The Federal Court, comprising Malaya chief judge Wan Adnan Wan Ismail, Sabah and Sarawak chief judge Steve Shim and Federal Court judge Dzaiddin Mohamad Abdullah, then fixed Dec 11 to hear the appeal pending Anwar's recovery.

Final avenue

The appeal to the Federal Court is Anwar's final venue of appeal against his conviction.

He was found guilty by the High Court on April 14 last year of abusing his power in asking the police to get a retraction of a police report from two persons, Azizan Abu Bakar and Ummi Hafilda Ali, who had accused him of sexual misconduct.

Justice Augustine Paul sentenced Anwar to six years in jail for committing the offences at his (Anwar's) former residence between Aug 12 and Aug 27, 1997.

Anwar's appeal to overturn this verdict was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on April 29 this year when a three-panel court, presided by Appellate Court president Lamin Yunus, unanimously dismissed it.

In his petition of appeal to the Federal Court filed on June 5, Anwar claimed, among others, that the Court of Appeal had failed to exercise its discretion judiciously and that it had misdirected itself in law in holding that his prosecution was not an abuse of process.

'Sentence excessive'

He said that the Court of Appeal had merely affirmed the finding of Justice Paul without considering the relevant grounds of appeal.

He also said that the court failed to adequately consider that the sentences imposed on him were excessive or the fact that the offences found to have been committed by him were technical in nature.

In addition to the six years imprisonment, Anwar was also sentenced to nine years jail by the High Court on Aug 8 for the crime of sodomy.

Both sentences are to run consecutively.