The family of jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim may take legal action against both the home and health ministries if his health condition continues to deteriorate.

Lawyer Sankara Nair said Anwar's family will not hesitate to take legal action if the relevant authorities fail to provide proper medical care for him at the Sungai Buloh prison.

Sankara said he had sent letters on behalf of the family to Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Health Minister Chua Jui Ming to protest the lack of professionalism by the authorities which led to Anwar's recent health complications.

Anwar, who is already suffering from spinal injury (prolapsed disc), was warded at the hospital last Friday where he was diagnosed with "baseline pneumonia" of the right lung.

Further tests on Sunday added asthma to his health woes. He is now back at the Sungai Buloh prison where he is serving a 15-year sentence for abuse of power and sodomy. He has maintained that former mentor and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had fabricated the charges to oust him from power.

Sankara said at a press conference in his office in Kuala Lumpur today that the legal suit consideration was not to threaten the authorities.

Proper precautions

"We just want them to take proper precautions to ensure that he (Anwar) gets no other health complications. As it is, pneumonia and asthma have exacerbated his back pain," he said, adding that negligence and lapse of judgement by the two ministries had led to Anwar's latest health complications.

He said despite Anwar's complaints and visible suffering from flu, coughs and fever, he had been held in a draughty cell.

"We were informed that the construction of the cell is such that instead of a concrete wall, one side is constructed of just iron bars that is uncovered and faces the outside open space. Hence, he is exposed to strong cold winds, especially when it rains in the evening and night," he said.

He said the relevant authorities should have done something to alleviate his client's suffering when they knew that Anwar was suffering from an extended bout of flu and fever.

Residual rights

He said although Anwar is a prisoner, the former minister still "reserves all his residual rights in respect of his health".

Last week, Anwar, 56, made headline news when he refused to allow local doctors to perform the surgery on him for his chronic back problem.

His wife and Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told malaysiakini that he rejected the offer to undergo disc replacement surgery by a team of local experts after consulting with family members and several specialists.

She said they decided that the operation would be risky as Anwar would be under general anaesthesia and that Anwar was willing to endure the pain until allowed to go abroad for treatment.

The government rejected Anwar's application to have an endoscopic surgery done in Germany by specialist Dr Thomas Hoogland.

Anwar, who was sacked from his government and party positions in 1998, hurt his back during a horse riding accident several years ago. He claimed that his back condition worsened after an assault while in policy custody in September 1998.