The Federal Court will hear next Monday an appeal by jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim against his conviction for four counts of corrupt practices which landed him with a six-year jail term.

The new date comes after almost one year since Anwar's appeal was first slated to be heard by the Federal Court but had to be postponed due to his ill-health.

Anwar's lawyer Sankara Nair told malaysiakini that he received a letter from the Federal Court registry earlier today informing him of the new date for the appeal.

Anwar's appeal was to have been heard on Nov 27 last year but had to be postponed indefinitely due to his chronic backache which resulted in him being hospitalised. He has since been discharged and moved back to his cell at the Sungai Buloh prison despite still suffering from back pain.

The panel at that hearing then consisted of the Malaya chief judge Wan Adnan Wan Ismail (now Court of Appeal president), Sabah and Sarawak chief judge Steve Shim and Federal Court judge Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah (now Chief Justice).

Sankara said that he had written to the court asking for a five-man bench for the appeal.

"There has been no response to this application yet. We may know on Monday about this," he said.

Final avenue

The appeal to the Federal Court is Anwar's final recourse against his conviction.

He was found guilty by the High Court on April 14, 1999 of abusing his power in asking the police to get a retraction from two persons, Azizan Abu Bakar and Ummi Hafilda Ali, who had accused him of sexual misconduct.

Justice Augustine Paul sentenced Anwar to six years jail for committing the offences at the latter's residence between Aug 12 and 27, 1997.

Anwar's appeal to overturn this verdict was unanimously dismissed by the Court of Appeal on April 29 last year by a three-member panel.

In his petition of appeal filed on June 5 last year, Anwar claimed, among others, that the Court of Appeal had failed to exercise its discretion judiciously and that it has misdirected itself in law in holding that the prosecution of Anwar was not an abuse of process.

In addition to the six years imprisonment he received in this case, Anwar was also found guilty of committing an act of sodomy and was sentenced to nine years jail by another High Court on Aug 8 last year.

Anwar is serving both sentences consecutively .