KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday defended himself from claims that he received special treatment in prison after critics alleged hypocrisy in how Pakatan Harapan supporters have questioned the care given to jailed former prime minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak.

At a talk given in Perlis last night, the Port Dickson MP said he has no qualms about the former Umno president receiving treatment but suggested that he had to serve ten years in prison before being transferred to the Cheras Rehabilitation Centre (HRC) in Bandar Tun Razak here.

"Umno asked how come Anwar can go to HRC but Najib can’t? Najib can be admitted but serve prison time ten years then go. I was alone in the prison cell making friends with lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes,” Utusan Malaysia’s weekend edition reported Anwar as saying.

"If he (Najib) really does have a medical condition that is a different situation. So I want the doctors to explain first if Najib indeed has a condition, if he does then it’s okay,” the PKR president added.

Najib has been going in and out of prison to get treatment and was recently admitted to the same hospital barely a month after the Federal Court upheld a High Court conviction and 12-year jail sentence, which has fuelled rumours about preferential treatment.

The authorities have denied the allegations.

The Prison Department in response to the rumours had defended its decision to allow Najib several days of stay at the Cheras hospital, saying all prisoners have the right to get medical care.

The Minister of Health told reporters shortly after that Najib had been discharged and is now back in Kajang Prison.

Anwar has served three prison sentences spending 11-years in jail for two sodomy charges he claimed were trumped up.

His critics alleged that the PKR president had spent at least two-thirds of his prison time either in hospital or outside his cell.