PETALING JAYA, March 3 — Khairy Jamaluddin is afraid to answer the challenge for him to publicly debate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction for sodomy, Rafizi Ramli claimed today.
The PKR secretary-general said the Umno Youth chief’s refusal also showed he had no arguments to validate his support for the Federal Court’s decision to jail Anwar.
“It is evidently clear that Umno Youth has no guts to debate in public, they only like closed-door debates.
“I wanted to show the public the kind of people you have in Umno. Everyone now knows what a coward Khairy Jamaluddin is,” Rafizi told reporters at a news conference here.
Umno Youth has said it would continue its roadshow to explain Anwar’s second sodomy conviction, but without its star attraction, chief prosecutor Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
The wing also said the rest of the roadshows will now be held behind closed doors, after the public legs in Kelana Jaya, Selangor and Permatang Pauh, Penang.
Last month, 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 federal lawmaker to five years’ jail.
