Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that he has still not seen an appeal letter sent to him last month by the family of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim.

"I don't know about the letter. My boys haven't given anything to me. I have not seen it," he told malaysiakini after launching Consumers' Week 2001 at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Yesterday, Anwar's counsel, Sankara Nair, told reporters the letter was personally delivered to Abdullah's office in Putrajaya on June 27.

The letter appealed to Abdullah, who is also home minister, to review a decision by Prisons Department director-general Omar Muhammad not to allow Anwar to be temporarily released to undergo surgery at a specialist spinal clinic in Munich, Germany.

When contacted today, Sankara said Abdullah was probably "trying to evade the issue".

"It is not true. How can he say that he has not seen the letter? The Home Ministry's secretary-general Baharon Talib has acknowledged receiving the letter.

"In fact he (Baharon) sent me a letter on July 4, stating that the appeal letter had been received and the matter was under consideration," Sankara told malaysiakini .

He said that he has faxed a reminder letter to Abdullah, seeking an early reply from the deputy premier regarding Anwar's appeal to him.

Less risky

Anwar has been in custody since September 1998, serving a 15-year jail sentence starting April 14, 2000, at the Sungai Buloh prison in Selangor for abuse of power and sodomy.

He was admitted to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital last November with a slipped disc and moved back to prison on May 10 after he rejected the government's offer to have his spinal surgery done at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

Anwar had insisted he has a right to a less risky endoscopic spinal operation at the Alpha Klinik in Munich. However, the government has rejected his request to seek the surgery overseas.

Various groups such as the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), non-governmental organisations, political parties, local luminaries, ordinary citizens and, most recently, even British parliamentarians, have appealed to the authorities to allow Anwar his right to medical treatment of his choice.