Jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim is disappointed with the postponement of his civil suit against former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor as he has waited for more than three years for the suit to proceed.

Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair said Anwar (photo) was visibly upset when told this morning that the Kuala Lumpur High Court had set March 18 for case management after postponing the trial on Tuesday due to the absence of leading counsel Karpal Singh.

"Anwar was disappointed with the development, especially when he was told by his lawyers that the normal mention date for case management is set within a month," said Sankara when contacted today.

On Wednesday, major dailies reported that Justice James Foong had fixed the date for case management after adjourning the matter because Karpal was in Hong Kong.

The court had initially insisted on starting the hearing that day, catching Anwar's counsel by surprise as they had thought it would be 'automatically' adjourned to make way for case management, which would not require Karpal's presence.

Faulted by judge

Following an amendment to Order 34 of Rules of the High Court, all civil cases must undergo case management which is a procedure for parties to identify the evidence which are to be presented and to determine the arguable or agreeable issues so that the trial could be expedited.

Anwar's counsel Gobind Singh Deo told malaysiakini , because it was thought the court would adjourn anyway, that was why Karpal was not present.

"We thought, like all other cases, Datuk Anwar's case would also be postponed for case management. Imagine our surprise when told that the court wanted to proceed with trial," Gobind said.

When Anwar's counsel had to ask for an adjournment because Karpal was not there, they were faulted by the judge.

"If we had known earlier that the case would be treated differently, Mr Karpal would have surely changed his schedule to make it that day," Gobind said.

Gobind also said he argued for about 15 minutes before Foong in chambers seeking an early date as the case was of public interest, but it was to no avail since Anwar's counsel had been faulted for the postponement.

It is understood that on the same day, at least one other case was fixed for case management as early as October by the same court.

Meanwhile, Gobind said he will be meeting Anwar on Monday to take further instruction in reference to his application to have the Attorney-General's Chambers removed as Rahim's solicitor and to strike out part of the statement of defence filed by the defendants.

Assaulted in custody

Former deputy prime minister Anwar had filed his suit on Jan 8, 1999, seeking aggravated and exemplary damages, interest, costs and other relief over injuries inflicted on him by Abdul Rahim on Sept 20, 1998.

He named the home minister and the government as the first and third defendants respectively, with Abdul Rahim (photo) as the second defendant.

Among others, Anwar said that after being arrested on Sept 20, 1998, at his residence in Bukit Damansara, he was taken to the police headquarters in Bukit Aman and placed in a cell, blindfolded and handcuffed from behind.

He was then assaulted by Abdul Rahim, who later claimed that Anwar had provoked him into committing the act.

Abdul Rahim pleaded guilty to the offence on March 15, 2000, at a Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court and was jailed two months and fined RM2,000. The fine was set aside by the High Court on Dec 15 the same year but was restored by the Court of Appeal in April 30 last year.

The former police chief has since served his jail sentence and paid the fine.

Anwar is serving a total of 15 years' jail at the Sungai Buloh Prison, for corrupt practice and sodomy. His appeal against the corruption case was rejected by the Federal Court in July this year. He has since sought a review on the matter.

The Court of Appeal has yet to set a date to hear his appeal against his sodomy conviction.