Jailed ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his conviction and six-year jail sentence for four counts of corrupt practices will be heard by the Federal Court on Jan 14.

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

The appeal was postponed from Nov 9, 2001, to an indefinite date as one of the judges in the three-member panel, Court of Appeal president Wan Adnan Wan Ismail, was seriously ill.

Wan Adnan died last Dec 24 after a prolonged illness.

The appeal was to have been heard initially on Nov 27, 1999, but was postponed then due to Anwar's chronic back ache which led to his hospitalisation.

He has since been discharged and moved back to his cell at the Sungai Buloh prison.

Besides the late Wan Adnan who was then Malaya chief judge, other members of the panel formed in 1999 are Sabah and Sarawak chief judge Steve Shim and then Federal Court judge Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah (now chief justice).

Sankara also said he will be making an application to the court for a five-man bench for the appeal.

Final avenue

The Federal Court is Anwar's final venue of appeal against his conviction.

He was found guilty by the High Court in 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 S 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 dismissed unanimously by a three-member Court of Appeal panel on April 29 last year.

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

He said the Court of Appeal had merely affirmed the findings of justice Paul without considering his relevant grounds of appeal.

In addition to the six years imprisonment, 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.

The former deputy premier is serving both sentences consecutively.