Zainur Zakaria was jailed for three months in November, 30, 1998 by Judge Augustine Paul. In April 1999 Paul found Anwar guilty of corruptly abusing his powers to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct and imprisoned him for six years.

Zainur had refused to apologise to the High Court for filing Anwar's application to remove prosecutors Abdul Gani Patail and Azahar Mohamed from the corruption case.

Anwar, in his application, alleged the prosecutors were involved in a move to fabricate evidence of sexual offences against him.

Zainur, who was bailed pending his appeal, is one of two of Anwar's lawyers to fall foul of the law over their conduct in court.

Karpal Singh was in January charged with sedition, punishable by up to three years' jail, over comments he made last September during Anwar's separate sodomy trial.

Anwar could face a 20-year jail term if convicted of sodomy but says the charges against him stem from a high-level political conspiracy.

Anwar had based his allegations against the prosecutors in his first trial on a statutory declaration by lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon about a meeting with Abdul Gani, as well as on Manjeet Singh's letter to the attorney-general complaining of Abdul Gani's conduct.

Judge Paul had described the allegations as baseless and scandalous and aimed at undermining the court's integrity. Zainur's lawyer Raja Aziz Addruse told the appeal court it was "very wrong" of Paul to refuse to consider Anwar's complaint against the prosecutors.

"We can't sweep the complaint under the carpet. We have to deal with it," he said.

"Is the interest of the public protected by suppressing the complaint? It is incumbent on the judge to consider the complaint."

Raja Aziz asked the appeal court to consider whether Anwar was within his constitutional rights in complaining to the court. If so, there could be nothing wrong in the application being filed by Zainur.

He said the appeal court must also consider "whether it was in the interests of the due administration of justice that the complaint (by Anwar) be disregarded or ignored. Because that was what the judge has done.

"If the answer is that Anwar had every right to complain to the court, as he has submitted, then there could be no basis for picking on Zainur Zakaria as having committed contempt for filing the affidavit sworn by Anwar in support of the complaint."

Anwar had been trying to exercise his constitutional and legal rights, he said.

"An application is made to a court for a remedy. It is the due administration of justice which is being promoted by the application. We cannot have the administration of justice behaving that way."

Karpal was charged over his remarks in court following claims that Anwar could be suffering from arsenic poisoning.

His reported comments were: "It could well be that someone out there wants to get rid of him ... even to the extent of murder. I suspect that people in high places are responsible for the situation."

A medical inquiry found Anwar was not suffering from "acute or chronic" arsenic poisoning when it conducted its tests.

Local lawyers have expressed deep concern about the case of Karpal, who is free on bail pending trial. Zainur's appeal continues Wednesday.