(Sept 10): Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today urged Putrajaya to respect the law and allow him unhindered access to see his lawyers, saying that such restrictions were a violation of his rights.

The former opposition leader who is serving a five-year jail term said with 16 civil and criminal cases still pending in court, restricting access has denied him the freedom to discuss and give directives to his lawyers.

"I am very disappointed with the decision of Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who restricted my meetings with my lawyers for discussions on cases pending in court.

"It is a violation of my rights to get legal advice and restricts the duties and responsibilities of my lawyers.

"Respect the law and the court process by allowing my lawyers to conduct their duties well and without any interference," he said in a message conveyed through his lawyers yesterday.

Anwar's lawyers and his daughter, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, held a press conference yesterday to highlight the matter.

"These actions have interfered with the smooth running of proceedings in court due to the difficulty in taking instructions, preparing, affirming and filing of court documents," his lawyer N. Surendran had said.

Prior to this, lawyers were allowed to meet Anwar twice a week with each session lasting two hours.

Nurul said the restrictions occurred after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak gave assurance through Twitter that the health and prison condition of her father would be looked into.

Anwar, 68, began his jail term on February 10 this year after the country’s apex court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that reversed his acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar also spent time in jail between September 21, 1998 and September 2, 2004 for abuse of power and sodomising his wife's driver Azizan Abu Bakar.

However, he was freed of the alleged misconduct in 2004 by the Federal Court in majority ruling. – The Malaysian Insider