Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who sacked his then deputy Anwar Ibrahim exactly six years ago, maintains that the latter is guilty of sodomy and that he won't be "losing any sleep" over today's Federal Court decision quashing the conviction and sentence.

"I'm not going to lose any sleep. I still believe that he's guilty. My conscience is clear,'' an Associated Press report quoted an 'unrepentant' Mahathir as saying.

The retired premier was also reported as saying that he was "mildly surprised" by the Federal Court decision and rejected accusations that he had orchestrated a judicial conspiracy to frame Anwar.

Speaking at a news conference, flanked by his wife and three of his children, Mahathir said the decision to jail or free his former deputy prime minister was completely up to the courts.

'Generous person'

Anwar, foreign governments and rights groups had long protested that he was a political prisoner after he was jailed on corruption and sodomy charges in 1998.

"This is the decision of the court that he is not guilty. I always explained this to a lot of people who kept asking me to take pity, to be generous and to release Anwar," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

"The fact is that I don't have the power to do that. In Malaysia, we follow the process of law."

Commenting on Anwar's statement after his release that he did not bear malice against him, Mahathir said: "I must think he must be a generous person indeed."

Anwar had told reporters in court that his convictions had been "highly politically motivated'' but that he bore no ill will toward Mahathir, who retired 10 months ago.

"Let him retire. I feel vindicated. This is all about justice," Anwar said this morning.

Mahathir, when asked about his views on the country's political scenario, said: "I am no longer involved in politics, and what happens from now, it is not my business."

Anwar served nearly six years in jail, completing a six-year sentence for corruption with two-thirds remission for good behaviour and beginning a nine-year term for allegedly sodomising his official driver.

Error in judgment

In a 2-1 decision, the country's highest court set free the former deputy prime minister. Also freed was his adopted brother Sukma Darmawan Sasmitaat Madja who had been convicted of the same offence.

A three-man Federal Court bench - consisting of Justices Abdul Hamid Mohamad, Rahmah Hussein and Tengku Baharudin Shah Tengku Mahmud - delivered the stunning decision at Putrajaya's Palace of Justice.

Abdul Hamid said the Kuala Lumpur High Court had misdirected itself in convicting and sentencing Anwar as the evidence of the prosecution's main witness Azizan Abu Bakar was uncorroborated.