The Malaysian Insight

LAWYER Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla last night has denied allegations he is acting on behalf of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad while representing a 28-year-old man who accused Anwar Ibrahim of sexual misconduct.

Muhammad Yusoff Rawther had his statement taken at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman yesterday. He alleged in a recent statutory declaration that Anwar tried to force him to perform sexual acts at his home in Bukit Segambut on October 2 last year.

In a statement last night, Haniff said he wanted to address allegations that his acting as Yusoff’s lawyer is a “conspiracy authored” by the prime minister.

“I am a private practising lawyer,” said Haniff.

“Yes, I have acted for Tun M (Dr Mahathir) before and there are still are some matters I am attending to on his personal files.”

Haniff, however, said as a practising lawyer, he cannot refuse to take a brief from any client unless it was an exceptional situation.

The lawyer said he was thus not disqualified from representing Yusoff.

“The fact that I am appearing for Yusoff Rawther out in front, that surely is crystal clear that Tun M cannot therefore be behind this matter at all, otherwise it is a big give away for me to be in the forefront, is it not?

“To me, the capabilities of certain section of our society to come up with fanciful conspiracy theories have at times relegated Hollywood, Bollywood and Kollywood, to second, third and fourth spots down the ladder.

“Perhaps these people should put their theories to work through the movies for them to earn good money.”

Anwar is the prime minister-in-waiting. He and Dr Mahathir have agreed on the transition of power and in a recent meeting on November 21, both agreed that they remained committed to the transition pledge which must be carried out with a “reasonable timeframe”.

Yusoff’s statutory declaration was widely shared on social media and chat groups on December 4, the same time he held a press conference on the alleged sexual misconduct.

Anwar has dismissed the allegation, saying he was at an event to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi on the day of the alleged incident and was also busy campaigning in the Port Dickson by-election.

Anwar has threatened to sue Yusoff. However, Anwar’s lawyer Ramkarpal Singh could not submit the letter of demand to Yusoff as he no longer lived at his address in Penang.

Haniff previously represented Dr Mahathir in several prominent cases, including the royal commission of inquiry into Bank Negara’s forex losses in the early 1990s in 2017 and the failed suit against Najib Razak in 2018 for alleged interference in investigations on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal. – December 10, 2019.