The Prisons Department has confirmed jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will be released on June 8, earlier than scheduled.

Yesterday, PKR president and Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told delegates at Pakatan Harapan Wanita's convention in Kajang that the PKR de facto chief was expected to be freed on June 11.

Sun Daily today reported Prisons Department director-general Zulkifli Omar as saying, "The 2000 Prison Regulations (No. 28) states that if a prisoner's release date falls on a weekend or public holiday, they have to be released the day before.

"Because June 10 is a Sunday and June 9 is a Saturday, he will be released on Friday, June 8."

Yesterday marked Anwar's 1,602nd day as a “political detainee", noted Wan Azizah.

Anwar was convicted of sodomy for the second time in 2014, when the Court of Appeal overturned his acquittal by the High Court in 2012.

He faced a similar charge during the tenure of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s.

Anwar's sentence is being cut short due to good behaviour.