Putrajaya admits to organising one forum to explain Anwar’s sodomy case

© Provided by The Malay Mail Online The roadshow to explain Anwar’s sodomy case was first announced by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (pic) shortly after the Federal Court’s decision to send the Opposition Leader to jail for five years. ―…KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 ― Putrajaya admitted today that it organised one of the events in the Umno-backed national roadshow to “explain” the Federal Court’s decision in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial.

De facto law minister Nancy Shukri said, however, that the subsequent events were conducted only due to “requests” from so-called political groups.

''After the case, the government only organised one roadshow to explain the case but the rest was because of NGO's requests, including political NGOs,'' she said in Parliament.

The roadshow to explain Anwar’s sodomy case was first announced by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin shortly after the Federal Court’s decision to send the Opposition Leader to jail for five years.

Khairy, who is also a Cabinet minister, had justified the forum series as necessary as it was Umno’s turn to defend itself against allegations of political persecution in a trial that had dragged on since 2008.

He had said he was “called” to answer allegations by the opposition on behalf of his party.

Nancy's admittal today is the first of such remark from the government.

The nationwide roadshow featured prominent Umno lawyer and Sodomy II lead prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Since Anwar’s conviction, Shafee has earned harsh criticism from the former’s supporters for going on a tirade against the leader although he is already serving out a jail term, with many saying that such actions were unbecoming of a public prosecutor.

Today, Nancy pointed out that no one has dared so far to debate Shafee, despite being offered to do so.

''If you want to invite Shafee, that is up to you but we have offered to debate but no one dared to take it up,'' she said, adding that even the Bar Council had not taken up the challenge.

Bar Council chief Christopher Leong had said that it was unethical for the public prosecutor to debate publicly on the case as any clarifications on the case must be done in a ''clinical, measured and dispassionate manner''.

On February 10, the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal's 2014 ruling that had reversed Anwar's acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and sentenced the Permatang Pauh MP to five years' jail.