The appeal by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim against a verdict of corruption before the Federal Court on Monday is once again postponed but this time to an undisclosed date.

A letter was faxed to his counsel Sankara Nair this afternoon by the Federal Court registrar stating that the postponement was due to one of the judges falling ill.

"Anwar was very distressed, he wanted very much to go on with the trial," said Sankara who visited Anwar in the Sungai Buloh prison today.

His appeal was to begin on Monday after it had been postponed last week.

The appeal comes almost one year after 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 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 former deputy premier is currently serving six years in prison for corruption and nine for sodomy when he was found guilty by Kuala Lumpur High Court judges Augustine Paul and Ariffin Jaka respectively.

Request

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 told malaysiakini last Monday he had written to the court asking for a five-man bench for the appeal and would have known if his request was to be met had the case continued.

Justice 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.