Lawyer Saiful Izham Ramli implored Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong to tell the  police, if called upon, the truth that no one coerced ex-PRK political aide Rahimi Osman.

NONE Speaking to reporters during a press conference today at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Saiful ( right ) said that Wee was never asked to attest to the statutory declaration (SD) but volunteered and was present when he (Saiful) recorded Rahimi's statement.

"I urge Wee to tell the truth if he is called by police, that Rahimi was not coerced. I don't want to hear that Wee suddenly said he was confined and was forced to attest to the SD," sniped Saiful.

Meanwhile lawyer Latheefa Koya, who was also at the press conference, labelled her mention of Wee, formerly of PKR who jumped to be an Independent, as a "statement of fact", adding that it was up to Wangsa Maju MP to explain why he seemed so jumpy about it.

"Maybe he has something to hide. Maybe he was involved in the hanky-panky as ex-PKR political aide Rahimi Osman described?"

"It is up to Wee to explain why he acted so jumpy and said that something was fishy," said Latheefa.

She added that her mention of Wee was only as the commissioner of oaths who attested to Rahimi's first statutory declaration and she never made any further reference to him.

Any other implication, she contended, is of Wee's own making, real or concocted.

Young upstart

Calling Latheefa a young upstart and politically immature for linking him, Wee said yesterday that she was trying to escape from being blamed by naming him as one of those who were aware of the statutory declaration.

NONE Wee ( left) also said that the circumstances of Rahimi's statutory declaration were dubious in nature although he did not deny counter-allegations that there was no coercion or confinement of the latter.

Rahimi, a former aide to PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, had caused a ruckus last Wednesday when he accused Latheefa and Saiful of confining him at the Quality Hotel, Shah Alam, prior to coercing him to sign false statutory declarations.

Rahimi claimed that he was coerced into implicating then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor in a conspiracy against Anwar.

Rahimi's allegations has created a lot of questions on the timing and purpose of his revelations, which was made ahead of two crucial by-election coming up soon.

This is especially since defence lawyers in Anwar's ongoing sodomy trial insist that Rahimi's allegations have no effect on the trial itself.