KJ referred to opposition’s ‘convenient marriage’, not Anwar's sodomy case, court hears

 

Khairy Jamaluddin’s remark 13 years ago was over the opposition’s pre-election marriage of convenience and not meant to link Anwar Ibrahim to sodomy, the Court of Appeal heard today.

The health minister’s counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah submitted that the context of the speech is important as it was made just before the 12th General Election in 2008.

Submitting via teleconferencing from New York, United States, Shafee said that it was a pre-election time where political parties give all sorts of exaggerated speech.

Shafee, who is facing a RM9.5 million money laundering case before the Kuala Lumpur High Court, was allowed temporary access to his passport so that he could fly to New York and help his son settle in for higher education there.

“It was a humorous speech but the intention of meaning to convey was in the context of marriage of convenience of political alliance, where they (opposition parties) ‘get married’ before the election and then break up.

“That has happened before in general elections, where the opposition parties united, such as in 2004 and 2008, then ‘divorce’.

“In the speech, BN, Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and PPP were mentioned as ‘married’ forever, but that the opposition only ‘kahwin mutaah’, a contract marriage, it can be as short as a few days to a month,” Shafee said.

Mutaah is a form of marriage practised by Shia followers, especially in Iran, where the marriage is of a temporary nature.

“My client was talking about political parties, you cannot sodomise political parties, that is an act of impossibility. It was spoken in a figurative context.

“What he (Khairy) wanted to draw reference to was that the BN alliance was ‘married forever’, while the opposition was a marriage of convenience, marry then divorce,” the lawyer submitted before a three-person bench chaired by Lee Swee Seng.

Shafee added that the speech was a type of political banter rather than defamatory and that politicians develop thicker skin compared to ordinary laypeople.

The Court of Appeal bench, which also comprised Darryl Goon Siew Chye and Ghazali Cha, was hearing Khairy’s appeal against opposition leader Anwar’s defamation suit.

Former Umno Youth chief Khairy’s appeal is against a lower court ruling that he pay RM150,000 in damages to PKR president Anwar, in relation to the minister’s alleged “main belakang” (a sodomy innuendo) remark in 2008.

On Sept 29, 2017, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Khairy was liable for defaming Anwar with the remark made at a ceramah in Lembah Pantai, just before GE12.

During the High Court trial, then youth and sports minister Khairy maintained that he never defamed Anwar as the remark was referring to the opposition’s alleged tendency for temporary alliances before general elections and that the coalitions tend to break up after the polls.

Following Shafee having wrapped up submissions today, the Court of Appeal then adjourned proceedings to January next year, with the specific dates to be fixed during case management later this afternoon.

Port Dickson MP Anwar’s legal team, led by former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram, is expected to deliver their counter-submissions when hearing resumes before the Court of Appeal.

The appeal was long-standing as initially, on Feb 19, 2018, the Court of Appeal had dismissed Khairy’s appeal on a technicality without hearing its merits.

However, on Dec 15 last year, the Federal Court allowed Khairy’s appeal against this initial dismissal and ordered the Court of Appeal to hear the merits of the minister’s appeal.

Anwar had filed the defamation suit against Khairy at the High Court in early 2008. - Mkini