This is due to the “unreasonable and unlawful restrictions” placed upon his access to and consultation with his lawyers in prison, said one of his lawyers today.
“Since August 2015, Anwar’s access to lawyers has been reduced to just once a week. This is absurd considering he has 16 pending cases in court… this makes it impossible for us to provide legal counsel to him.
“So today, upon Datuk Seri Anwar’s request, we are forced to announce that he will now represent himself in court. He will fight his cases on his own,” N. Surendran, who is also PKR vice-president, told a press conference.
“We had protested numerous times in writing to the Sungai Buloh Prison Director, the Director-General of Prisons and Home Minister Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, all to no avail.
This prompted Anwar to discharge his legal team from representing him in several cases, said Surendran.
“He will now represent himself in those cases. This include a civil appeal in defamation case (against Utusan Malaysia) coming up in the Federal Court tomorrow.
“In some other cases, we will continue to represent him, subject to the restrictions of access by the authorities,” he said.
Anwar was jailed in 2014 on a sodomy charge.
PKR remain convinced that Anwar is innocent and the charges against him were trumped up.