Prison officials have the powers to conduct a search in Anwar Ibrahim's hospital room but such a search could not be done in his absence, said the former deputy prime minister's lawyer.

Sankara Nair told malaysiakini today that the officials must be answerable to the search they conducted on Anwar's hospital room last Dec 20 when the jailed politician was away at Selayang Hospital for treatment.

"We don't deny the prison officials can conduct a search but they cannot do that without the presence of Anwar. That is against natural justice and they will have to answer for that," he said in referring to a statement by the Prisons Department yesterday that two Prison officials did conduct a search of Anwar's room at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital on Dec 20 at 9.25am.

Proper search

Prisons spokesman Jamil Razif Kassim said the inspection was conducted in accordance with normal procedures for any prisoner.

He also said that the officials had not seized any medical or legal documents from the room but had taken "an unauthorised article", according to a report in The Star today.

Anwar had lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station on Feb 6 at about 2.15pm complaining that a handphone and several legal and medical documents have been stolen from his hospital room following a search by two senior prison officers on Dec 20 last year.

He said that the handphone belonged to his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail who had left it there in her previous visit and the legal documents pertained to his appeal to the Federal Court as well as comments and notes made by himself and his lawyers.

Illegal search

Anwar, who is serving a total of 15 years' jail after being convicted in separate trials of corruption and sodomy, is undergoing treatment for his chronic back pain at the KL Hospital since November.

He said that the illegal search was made when he was away at the Selayang Hospital to undergo scanning for his back pain.

Sankara said today that Anwar was not in possession of any unauthorised things in his hospital room.

He said he was surprised with Jamil's statement regarding the unauthorised article that was seized in the search.

Still in hospital

Sankara also said rumours of Anwar being transferred back to the Sungai Buloh prison today were untrue.

"He is still there. The rumours are unfounded and we will be seeing him today at the hospital," he said.

Sankara had earlier on Feb 5 said that Anwar's stay in the hospital was at stake as Anwar believed he would be transferred to a smaller cell in Sungai Buloh prison soon although his treatment was not completed.

Sankara had said Anwar was told of this by a reliable source.