KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Bar Council chairman Christopher Leong today dismissed a challenge for him to debate Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on the trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, saying it may embarrass the public prosecutor’s office.

Leong said it was of no benefit for Shafee – who acted as prosecutor-by-fiat in Anwar’s trial – to continue participating in road-shows or debates to explain the opposition leader’s conviction for sodomy.

“Any road-show or public debate by a prosecutor with respect to a prosecution he had conducted, culminating in a conviction, would add nothing to the conduct of the prosecution, proceedings or conviction, but may potentially embarrass, or affect the public confidence in or perception of, the office of the Public Prosecutor,” he said in a statement.

Last week, it was reported that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri had suggested that Shafee hold a public debate with the Bar Council instead of going on a road-show organised by Umno Youth on Anwar’s conviction and five-year jail sentence.

Earlier today, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek offered to handle everything from the venue to logistics for the debate, should Leong agree to the challenge.

At a forum organised by Umno Youth last week, Shafee claimed the Bar Council was now a “political animal” and urged the government to take “drastic action” to neutralise its alleged bias towards the opposition.

He also claimed that Leong was in contempt of court for his remarks on the prosecution, alleging that these suggested that Federal Court judges were incapable of impartial conduct in their handling of Anwar’s trial.

A day after Anwar’s sodomy conviction, Leong said “glaring anomalies” in the prosecution of the federal opposition leader fuelled suspicion that the case was one of political persecution, but reserved comment on the judgment itself.

The Bar Council chief noted that Anwar’s accuser, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, was remarkably not charged despite the decision to prosecute Anwar for consensual anal sex.