updated version

Jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim now has a companion in his hospital room at the University Hospital - a prison warden who has been placed there to monitor his daily activities, Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair said today.

Sankara said the new ruling was imposed about three weeks ago and that the job of the warden was to "record everything that Anwar does, from eating, reading and even going to the toilet, with the toilet door not allowed to be fully closed".

"This is clearly harassment ... and is very, very unfair. I have written to the authorities, but until now I have yet to hear about any changes to the ruling," said Sankara, when briefing members of parliament (MPs) at the Parliament House lobby today.

"There is no such thing mentioned in the prison rules and they have no right to do it," he said, adding that the authorities have not paid any heed to the complaints he made on the matter.

Today's briefing was organised by Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also Anwar's wife. It was attended only by opposition MPs and members of the press.

Will not desert

Sankara said that the ruling was only relaxed when Anwar's mother passed away recently, but the monitoring resumed the day after the funeral.

"At one time, they even had a deputy superintendent of police to monitor Anwar," he said adding there were usually five armed guards at all the entrances leading to Anwar's room.

Wan Azizah told the briefing that Anwar's medical condition was not a political issue and he will not "desert the country" if given the opportunity to seek medical treatment overseas.

Anwar has been warded at the University Hospital for the past four month with a spinal injury which he has requested to be treated overseas. Wan Azizah said Anwar must be sent overseas for surgery to relieve his medical condition based on humanitarian grounds.

"There are no prison laws to prevent Anwar from going overseas to seek medical treatment," she said.

"It is wrong to think that Anwar is pretending (about his medical condition) and therefore a prison warden is stationed to monitor him 24 hours a day and record his every move," she added.

Wan Azizah said she was anxiously waiting to hear Health Minister Chua Jui Meng's explanation regarding Anwar's health on April 17.

Surgery risks

Meanwhile, specialist neurosurgeon Dr Halili Rahmat from the Tawakal Hospital in Kuala Lumpur told the briefing Anwar could either choose conventional or endoscopic surgery for his back injury.

He said that if Anwar chose the conventional method available in Malaysia, the success rate would be only 80 percent with a post-recovery period of a week.

With endoscopic surgery, however, Anwar would only be hospitalised for only two days, said Halili.

He said there would be some risks for Anwar if he opted for endoscopic surgery as he is currently suffering from a neck pain which could complicate his condition.