PKR vice-president N Surendran has accused Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin of being dishonest in claiming that the BN played no part in the conviction of Anwar Ibrahim for sodomising his former aide.

Arguing that BN may even have cooked up the Sodomy II case, Surendran ( left ) pointed to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s meeting with the victim, Saiful Bukhari, just two days after the alleged crime took place.

He also noted that the government used a lawyer in private practice, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, as its lead prosecutor and that Shafee was also the Umno president's "personal lawyer".

Speaking to reporters in Kajang today, Muhyiddin said the BN cannot be faulted for last week's Court of Appeal conviction that cut Anwar off from his candidacy for the Kajang by-election.

"Muhyiddin's statement displays breathtaking dishonesty and duplicity, grossly unbecoming of a deputy prime minister.

 

"Anwar's conviction has everything to do with the BN, and Muhyiddin is fully aware of this.

“It was a politically-motivated show trial, orchestrated and plotted by the BN government and its security and judicial apparatus," Surendran, the MP for Padang Serai, said in a press statement.

In the two-day trial last week, the government won its appeal against Anwar's Sodomy II acquittal by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in 2012.

'Reputation of judiciary at rock bottom'

Reversing the verdict to guilty and sentencing Anwar to five years’ jail disqualified him from contesting in the Kajang by-election that will be held on March 23.

However, the court granted Anwar a stay of execution of the sentence, on a bail of RM10,000, pending his appeal to the Federal Court.

Muhyiddin also denied that the government influenced the judiciary, to which Surendran also disagreed.

"Muhyiddin's claim that the judiciary is independent is a bare and empty statement.

"The reputation of the judiciary has been at rock bottom since Umno's sacking of the judges during the 1988 judicial crisis.

“And the public have lost what little regard they had for the judiciary since the conviction of Anwar last Friday," Surendran said.

He warned that BN and Umno would answer for their crimes if they do not abandon their culture of having political opponents jailed.