The former Opposition leader’s incarceration, Saiful argued, had nothing to do with suppressing democracy.

“It is a lie.

“Anwar was charged and tried before nine judges,” he said in a statement.

Anwar, who was also once a former deputy prime minister was found guilty in 2015 of sodomising Saiful, then his aide, in 2008.

Saiful was also unhappy that international organisations had labelled Anwar’s imprisonment as a human rights issue.

“How about me? I was the victim and complainant. Am I not human enough for such organisations to deny me my rights?”

The world, he lamented, was topsy-turvy where people would defend the rich, powerful and influential, especially if it benefited them.

“But not a nobody like me. Is this what we are trying to promote?”

Yesterday, more than a thousand people gathered outside the Sungai Buloh Prison, where Anwar is serving time, to commemorate the first anniversary of his five-year prison sentence.