Jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim's lawyer has written a letter to the prison authorities requesting them to comply with the Prisons Act and to allow the former deputy prime minister to seek surgery overseas for his chronic back pain.

In a letter dated yesterday, lawyer Sankara Nair asked the prisons department director-general Omar Muhammad Dan to act within his powers as allowed by sections 37, 42 and 43 of the Act.

He urged Omar to use his powers under sections 42 and 43 of the Prisons Act to release Anwar temporary to undergo the latter's preferred choice of treatment.

The sections permit the prisons department director-general to allow prisoners to be released on conditional licence for the prisoner to go overseas for treatment.

Meanwhile, section 37 provides that where there are inadequate facilities for the treatment of a prisoner, an order may be made for the removal of that prisoner to a government hospital.

Sankara lamented that the "full and conservative treatment" promised for his client at the prison had fallen short and that much of the equipment purchased for this purpose "have not been assembled".

"We view this as a serious breach of promise by Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) and a grave breach of medical ethics by its doctors," said Sankara.

Anwar underwent treatment at HKL since Nov 25 and was sent back to prison on May 10 after he rejected the option of undergoing a surgery locally.

"Our client now languishes away in a prison cell, in solitary confinement, in a state no better than he was, before being sent to HKL for treatment," Sankara had stated in the letter.

'Languishes away'

The ex-deputy premier has expressed his wish to undergo a "less risky" endoscopic spinal operation at a specialist clinic in Munich, Germany. However, this was rejected by the authorities.

According to the government, Anwar could have a foreign specialist perform the surgery locally and if required, import necessary equipment.

But the foreign specialist, Dr Thomas Hooglan, refused to operate here after his capabilities and methods were questioned by government ministers.

Sankara called on Omar to act immediately as "our client is in pain everyday. Only strong medication is keeping the pain at bay and side effects of some of the drugs administered is apparent wherein there is now noticeable water retention and swelling of his hands."

On May 31, the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) supported Anwar's right to have his surgery overseas.

It also said that in view of sections 37, 42 and 43 of the Prisons Act, there were no prohibitions in law for Anwar to be sent abroad for medical treatment.

Grounds of judgment

In a related matter, Sankara had also sent a letter to High Court judge Ariffin Jaka on Monday reminding the judge to provide notes of evidence and his grounds of judgment from Anwar's sodomy trial.

Ariffin had sentenced Anwar to nine years jail after finding him guilty of sodomy on Aug 8, 2000.

"Our client wants his case to be heard by the Court of Appeal as soon as possible and since the notes of the proceedings and the grounds of the judgment are not ready, we can't proceed with our appeal process," said Sankara.

Sankara said that this letter was sent as there was no response from the judge to the first letter which was sent on May 23.

The judge's code of ethics stipulate that judges must deliver their written judgment containing their grounds of judgment within six weeks of delivering their decision.

Anwar is currently serving a 15-year jail term at the Sungai Buloh prison for abuse of power and sodomy.