Prominent US lawyer Kimberly Motley had hoped to meet Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi this afternoon after not being allowed to meet her client Anwar Ibrahim at the Sungai Buloh prison.

However when she turned up at the Home Ministry in Putrajaya, neither Zahid nor his deputy was in.

"There's no one in except for some office boys," a police officer stationed at the government complex told Motley and Malaysian lawyer Raul Lee Bhaskaran.

Motley was appointed by Anwar to help in several of his ongoing cases, including a review of his sodomy conviction in February 2015.

According to Raul, who is from the law firm Daim & Gamany which is representing Anwar in most of his applications, the firm wrote to the Prisons Department on Sept 10 to seek permission for Motley to meet the former opposition leader.

However, the application was rejected.

"Motley is doing the cases on a pro-bono basis," Raul told Malaysiakini.

He also said that a letter seeking a meeting with Zahid had been faxed as well as delivered by hand to the latter's office, but there has been no response to date.

Motley, a graduate from Marquette Law School in 2003, has practised in the US and Afghanistan, and has also done research work in the area of juvenile justice that has been reported internationally.

She also helped train hundreds of Afghan lawyers.

A former Ms Wisconsin winner in 2004, Motley also litigated hundreds of criminal, civil and juvenile cases of varying misdemeanours and felony matters.

Anwar is currently serving a five-year prison sentence.