PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim today said his conviction today is to make sure he could not contest in Kajang.

He said interestingly enough, government-appointed prosecutor Muhammad Shafee Abdullah made a special reference to Kajang in the mitigation.

“My counsel had been told to vacate the dates April 7 to 10, and these dates were brought forward because of this (Kajang),” he said.

“Karpal has a murder case on Thursday and he has been asked to vacate the dates for this trial,” he said.

Asked as to what will happen to Kajang without him, the 66-year-old says the constituency will grow stronger.

“Insyaallah (God-willing) my party will be able to consolidate further because their boss is in trouble,” he laughed.

“I will personally go there and campaign to ensure victory,” he said.

To queries about Shafee describing him as a national threat, Anwar replied, “You see the corrupt, the murderers, the rapists all in collusion (in this).

“So I become a national threat,” he said.

Shafee, in his submission, had said that as a leader of the opposition Anwar opens himself to blackmail and extortion and this resulted in him being a danger to national security.

‘I am the victim’

Anwar stressed that he has been made the real victim as a result of the conviction.

“Yes I’m the victim. You can see the conduct, there is no reference to the facts in the law. The judges follow strictly the script given to you. This is a criminal trial. You mean to say it’s beyond reasonable doubt (leading to this conviction)?,” he asked.

He warned that the government has not learnt the wrath of the people.

Anwar also did not mince his words on the conduct of the judges in the prosecution’s appeal, describing them as pathetic.

“It is pathetic to see the conduct of the judges behaving in this manner,” he said.

Look at Justice Aziah Ali, Anwar said she clearly could not control herself.

“She showed so much venom and anger. She is not fit to be a judge. She fixed the date in the hearing of the appeal and not the deputy registrar in this case.

While Karpal asked for the sentencing to be made next week, owing to he wanted to present the medical report as Anwar suffers from hypertension, back ailment and heart problem, the court rejected it outright, he said.

Even in the court’s judgment, it reflects mostly the prosecution or Shafee’s submission as not an iota of the defence submission was placed in this verdict, he added.

However, Anwar showed calmness despite the conviction, describing that the party will continue on.

“The beauty of this is it’s not just Anwar, it’s a struggle. So you want to cut off Anwar, you put Anwar in prison, the party and the movement will become stronger. You deny Anwar the seat I believe, God willing, the people of Kajang will support us. I will be there to campaign every day,” he said.

‘Never such haste’

Karpal said he had never seen a case rushed like this before in his many years of legal practise.

The 73-year-old DAP chairperson decried the manner they rushed through things in deciding the sentence without the medical report.

His views were also echoed by PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, who is also Bukit Katil MP, who said there are two dangerous precedents set in the hearing of the case.

“Firstly is the court saying tampering of evidence is all right? This will have an impact on all criminal cases as in this case there is evidence of the plastic being opened. This will have to be decided in the Federal Court.

“Secondly on mitigation of sentence, is it not necessary to show  medical report,” said Shamsul Iskandar, who is also a practising lawyer.

Subang MP and PKR central committee member Sivarasa Rasiah said Anwar’s conviction shows that Umno is scared of Anwar.

“Initially the dates of hearing were fixed for April 7 and 10 about three weeks ago. However, following Kajang, they have moved forward the hearing dates to today,” he said.

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli described the conviction and sentence as a travesty of justice.