Jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has decided to represent himself in court, following restrictions on access to his lawyers in prison.

His lawyer N Surendran said Anwar was forced to make this decision following the "unreasonable and unlawful" restrictions placed on the former opposition leader's access to his lawyers.

"Under these circumstances, Anwar has had no alternative but to discharge us from further acting for him in several of the cases.

"He will now represent himself in those cases," Surendran, who is also Padang Serai MP, said at a press conference at PKR headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

As such, Anwar will appear in the Federal Court tomorrow morning to represent himself in his case against Utusan Malaysia .

Before August last year, Surendran ( photo ) said, they were allowed two visits a week and the hours were flexible.

Now, they have been limited to once a week for only an hour, he said.

"This is manifestly inadequate as Anwar is involved in 16 different civil and criminal cases that are ongoing in court," Surendran explained.

They had protested this restriction multiple times to the Sungai Buloh Prison director, the director-general of prisons and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, he said, but to no avail.

Fellow lawyer Latheefa Koya clarified that for now, a notice has been filed with the court that Anwar will represent himself in court tomorrow for his case against Utusan Malaysia.

"Just to be clear, the notice has been filed with regard to the case involving Anwar and Utusan. We will still remain as his lawyers for several other cases, depending on the restrictions of access by authorities," Latheefa said.

'Allow prisoner-family direct contact'

She also urged the prison authorities to allow family members to have direct contact during their visits to prisoners, including Anwar, so that the prisoners could touch and embrace their families.

“When Anwar’s family visits him, they can only see him through the glass panel and talk to him by telephone. This is cruel and causes distress and suffering for the family members.

“We want all prisoners, not only Anwar, to be able to have physical contact with their family members during these visits,” Latheefa added.

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president and Batu MP Tian Chua brought up the matter of Anwar's health again, and his restrictions to proper and adequate medical treatment.

Tian Chua called for Anwar's lead medical coordinator, Dr Jeyaindran Sinandurai, to be replaced, since the doctor is also a personal physician to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

"As such, we have strong reasons to believe that there is a serious conflict of interest," he said.

Anwar was convicted on a charge of sodomy in February last year and is currently serving a five-year sentence at the Sungai Buloh Prison. Anwar insists that the charge against him was trumped-up.