The Prisons Department is imposing restrictions on PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's right to access his lawyers as pressure for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down mounts

This was revealed by Anwar's legal team members N Surendran, S Ambiga and Latheefa Koya today.

The Sungai Buloh Prison has only allowed Anwar to see his lawyers once a week since mid-August, as compared with twice per week previously, Surendran disclosed.

He said the duration of the meetings have also now been reduced from two hours to one.

On top of that, the prison officers have done a lot of homework, by calling the court to check the details and schedule of the court proceedings before deciding which lawyer could meet Anwar, he said.

This is very disturbing development as Anwar has a total of 16 cases pending in the criminal, civil and syariah courts, and the new 'rules' are imposed only on Anwar, Surendran ( photo ) told a press conference today.

He regarded this as a fundamental violation of Anwar’s constitutional rights.

"We are shocked to note that this basic right is being arbitarily and unreasonably interfered with and restricted," he said.

Citing examples, Surendran said he and S Ambiga, who represented Anwar in his sodomy II review application, were denied access to meet Anwar by 3pm today.

Prior to this, a lawyer was made to wait for two hours before being allowed to meet Anwar on an affirmation matter on Aug 19, he said.

According to him, the prison director also, on Aug 27, refused to allow the swearing of an affidavit by Anwar.

'Madness has to end'

Also present was Anwar's daughter and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Nurul Izzah said the prison authority only executes orders, thus she held Najib and his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi fully responsible.

"You have already taken away the political right (of my father). He poses no direct political challenge to the powers that lead (the nation)," Nurul Izzah ( photo ) said.

"I think this madness has to end," Nurul Izzah said, while Ambiga added that it seemed the government 'was still afraid of one man'.

Latheefa, meanwhile, noted that the scandals surrounding Najib were a key factor.

"This happened in the wake of Prime Minister Najib being subjected to all these scandals," she asserted.

To a question on whether the denial to legal access was related to latest developments in the country, Nurul Izzah said curtly," I don't know. You have to ask Najib and Rosmah Mansor, as well as Ahmad Zahid. They are the key players in Malaysia today."

According to her, such things only happened after Najib ensured her father would be taken care of, through a Twitter posting, after the family cried out that Anwar's health condition was worsening and not attended to.

Said Ambiga: "The lawyers sometimes need hours with their clients to ensure they are best represented. One hour per week is a joke. They are insulting the system.

"It seems now that the government is still afraid of one man. This is utterly disgraceful."

The former Malaysian Bar president added: "They are so diligent. They just call up the court to find out who is acting (on behalf of Anwar), on which case and the details. I have never seen the Prisons Department behaving in such a way.

"This is none of their business. As long as the client says he wants to see the lawyers, whether there is a case in court or not is not relevant. Anwar is entitled to legal advice whenever he wants it."

Malaysiakini was not able to get the response from Prisons Department director-general Zulkifli Omar as at the time of publishing the update to this report.

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