PUTRAJAYA, Feb 24 — Prominent lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is very qualified to publicly explain the government’s sodomy case against Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.

Muhyiddin who is also Umno deputy president dismissed today a question that his party was angry with the seasoned private lawyer for holding a series of talks around the country about the case that ended with the PKR man back in jail for the next five years.

“Who said we were angry?” Muhyiddin replied to a question if the Barisan Nasional lynchpin party was upset with Shafee’s conduct post-conviction.

“It is his right, he’s been invited by some organisation, he wants to explain. He is very qualified, he is very much involved with this, people want to listen. Why should Umno be angry?” Muhyiddin said at a press conference here.

Shafee was the lead prosecutor in the sodomy trial of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and since the conclusion of the case, has embarked on a roadshow with the purported aim of explaining Anwar’s sodomy conviction and rebutting allegations of political persecution.

On February 17, Shafee told a forum that Anwar is a “closet homosexual” and posed a threat to national security, when explaining the Federal Court’s decision to jail the opposition leader for five years for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Shafee, who acted as public prosecutor under fiat during Anwar’s trial, also shared in detail Saiful’s testimony on how Anwar had sodomised him in 2009.

Although the first forum organised by Umno Youth was open to the public, Shafee’s latest instalments in Penang have been marked as “closed-door” events and media are not allowed to report the remarks made within.

Yesterday, Muslim preachers Wan Ji Wan Hussin and Ahmad Auzaie Arshad urged Selangor Islamic authorities to investigate Shafee for qazaf, or unsubstantiated allegations of sexual impropriety, over his allegations on Anwar’s sexuality.

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 lawmaker to five years’ jail.