Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was not the only victim of the petrifying events which unfolded in those dark days of September 1998. There were others, including his longtime friend and speech writer of seven years, Dr Munawar A Anees.

"Let us not forget there were other victims, prior to Anwar's arrest, who underwent enormous sufferings at the hands of Malaysian government, police, judiciary and the media," said Anees in an exclusive e-mail interview with malaysiakini .

"For instance, Dato (S) Nallakaruppan endured the horrific threat of the death penalty when he was blackmailed by the attorney-general, Sukma (Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja), who shared a handcuff with me in an old police truck that brutally hauled us in the company of common convicts from the kangaroo court to Kajang (prison).

"And the fashion designer, Mior (Abdul Razak Yahya), who was detained and forced to make totally false statements against me. Not to speak of others who were subjected to constant harassment, threats, surveillance, and fear of physical abuse," he said.

The three men, Anwar's tennis partner and businessman Nallakaruppan, his adopted brother Sukma and Mior - who sewed and embroidered some of the clothes worn by Anwar's wife - were all arrested and detained by police in what has been internationally acknowledged to be a clumsy plot to smear the reputation of the ousted politician.

Armed with the 'confessions' of these men, the police arrested Anwar on Sept 20, 1998 and later charged him on several counts of corruption and sodomy.

"The euphoria over one man's freedom must not make us oblivious to the fact that those who committed human rights crimes still roam free, and victims like me and my family continue to suffer," decried Anees.

Anees, a Pakistani-American writer who is a biologist by training and an internationally well-respected Islamic intellectual, was detained under the draconian Internal Security Act on Sept 14, 1998 - two weeks after Anwar was sacked from his deputy prime minister's post by then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"They stripped me of all self-respect; they degraded me and broke down my will and resistance; they threatened me and my family; they frightened me; they brainwashed me to the extent that I ended up in court on Sept 19, 1998 a shivering shell of a man willing to do anything to stop the destruction of my being," Anees had said in a chilling statutory declaration .

The 55-page document, which was written while he was in prison, was later presented in court as part of his appeal against the six-month jail sentence meted out to him after he 'confessed' - while in police custody - of letting Anwar sodomised him.

"My kidnapping and detention by the infamous Malaysian Special Branch police taught me how it feels to be forcibly separated from one's wife and children. How it feels to be searched and seized, disallowed to make phone calls, to be handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped naked, driven in an animal cage, shaven bald, endlessly interrogated, humiliated, drugged, deprived of sleep and physically abused.

"It taught me what it's like to be threatened, blackmailed, tormented by police lawyers, brutalised to make a totally false confession, hospitalised for a consequent heart ailment and to be treated as a psychiatric patient with symptoms of Stockholm syndrome," said Anees of his ghastly experience six years ago, which remains fresh in his mind.

"Barely surviving on a meagre diet of rancid rice and chicken along with 12 types of medicine a day, I spent nearly four months handcuffed around the clock to my hospital bed, under the watchful eyes of the prison guards," said the scholar who has written half-a-dozen books on various subjects including the philosophy of Islamic science.

Mahathir 'a liar'

Anees left Malaysia in January 1999 after serving the sentence and is now living in Paris with his Algerian-born wife Nadia and their two children - daughter Aisha and son Omran.

"Although six years have elapsed since these atrocities were committed against my person, yet I have been unable to erase the imprints from my mind. But I am no longer suffering from short-term memory lapses or speech problems. There are no nightmares. I believe I am out of depression.

"However, my writing ability remains deeply affected. The news of torture inflicted upon innocents elsewhere in the world enlivens these memories. But instead of relapsing into depression, I am reinvigorated to fight against these violations of human rights."

Anees said he was 'eternally grateful' to lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon - whom he described as the doyen of the Malaysian legal establishment - for taking it upon himself to come to his rescue when the Malaysian government had denied him any kind of legal redress.

He also thanked those who had tenaciously campaigned for his freedom, especially the individuals who had banded together to create a 'Free Anees' website, which he said was a '... fine example of cyber lobbying".

"What touched my heart was that that person, Kamal Mubarak, who set up the website had never met me in person. From the depths of my confinement, I could see the magic of human compassion had begun to defeat oppression."

Nevertheless, Anees did not mince his words when speaking of Mahathir.

"Please let the world know why under Mahathir's personal orders I was kidnapped by the thugs of the Malaysian police from my home in front of my wife. I have an open challenge on public record to Mahathir on this.

"It is for him to tell the world what 'incontrovertible' proof he continues to hold to his chest about my alleged involvement in the events engineered by his corrupt police involving the torture and brutality against the innocents. There is none. There is none for Mahathir is a liar."

Anees said that he had since resumed writing but on a limited scale.

"One hundred and twenty-six days lost at the hands of my kidnappers have left such deep scars. I face difficulty in writing with the ease and efficiency that I was used to. Nonetheless I'm trying to finish several pending projects. There are a few books in the making."

Among the books he has written include Islam and Biological Futures: Ethics, Gender, and Technology - published in 1990 - which discussed the problems of surrogate motherhood, abortion, and genetic engineering.

Anees, who is widely regarded as a leading progressive social and scientific voice in the Islamic world, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago. He is currently a consultant to Washington think-tank John Templeton Foundation.

Anwar in 'political dungeon'

He told malaysiakini that he first heard about the Sept 2 Federal Court decision to quash Anwar's sodomy conviction and nine-year jail sentence from his (Anees') daughter.

"My first reaction to the news was that of great relief and joy. I immediately thought of Anwar's wife and his children who had been deprived of his company. I took it as good news for his deteriorating health and the painful condition he had suffered after his police beating," he said.

However, Anees cautioned that while the court decision has brought freedom to Anwar, it came with the taint of the fallen politician's alleged homosexual trysts.

"This was meant to provide fodder for future political dickering. Instant proof of the deliberate wording of that judgment came with the negative verdict for Anwar's final appeal against his corruption charges. Euphoria aside, a serious look at the sequence of events tells me that Anwar may have regained his personal freedom but he remains in a political dungeon."

On hearing of Anwar's freedom, Anees said he immediately reached for the telephone to call his close friend.

"Anwar's sister, Farizon Ibrahim, told me Anwar was busy at a public meeting and that he would return my call. That was the night before he left for Germany (for his spinal surgery)."

Anees is still hoping to hear from him. And he has a piece of advice for his friend.

"Any equivocation to (Mahatma) Gandhi or (Nelson) Mandela by Anwar partisans is likely to do more harm than good to his future political career. I think as Anwar recovers at the German clinic, a deeply transparent and critical self-analysis, sans political rhetoric, must remain his top priority.

"I hear loud partisan proclamations that nothing is permanent in politics but at the same time I believe moral and ethical values are not built upon shifting sands," he said.

Anees, who turns 56 next week, signed off his e-mail to malaysiakini with a quote from third US president Thomas Jefferson: 'I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'

The words, which was engraved on the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC, had deeply impressed him when he first visited the United States as a student nearly a quarter of a century ago.

"Recently, with tears in my eyes, I revisited that site. My arbitrary arrest and torture in Malaysia had engraved Jefferson's inscription onto my heart."