The Malaysian Insight

PARTI Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman today filed a report urging the police to investigate the Sarawak Report’s allegation that prominent lawyer Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah had received RM9.5 million paid directly from Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account.

The news portal claimed that Shafee had received the amount for leading the sodomy trial of de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Syed Saddiq called upon Malaysians to also lodge reports so that an investigation would be initiated to clear the global suspicion and doubt that had fallen on the independence of the Malaysian judiciary.

Syed Saddiq lodged the report today at the Shah Alam police headquarters.

He said the payment made from Najib’s personal account, the same account that SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB “accidentally channeled money into”, was a direct violation of Section 379 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The code states that the public prosecutor employed ​on behalf of the government to conduct a criminal prosecution or inquiry shall be paid out of the public funds sanctioned by the finance minister.

“The allegation that the money came directly from the prime minister’s own pocket has stained the judiciary arm of our government as there is a direct conflict between the prime minister and the then opposition leader.

“Such payment has to raise questions in the minds of the public, such as why did the prime minister have so much interest in the case, especially acknowledging that the jailing of the opposition leader would bring disunity to the opposition party,” he said in a statement today.

He added that such action was tantamount to contempt of court as a public prosecutor paid directly by a party would not be fit to act fairly and properly in assisting court to achieve justice. 

“A public prosecutor’s job is not to put people in jail but to assist the court to find justice, and the element of money coming from the prime minister’s own pocket severely brings doubt to the ability of the public prosecutor,” said Syed Saddiq.

On March 2015, Astro Awani reported Minister in the Prime Minister’s Departmant Nancy Shukri telling Parliament that Shafee had received a fee of RM1,000 as the lead prosecutor in the sodomy trial of PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim.

She revealed this while replying to a question from Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri).

Er wanted to know how much Shafee was paid as the lead prosecutor of the case heard in the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

Nancy told the house that Shafee had not sought a fee for his service but an agreement was reached on the payment.

“He had not wanted any payment for his service but we wanted to be transparent and after providing him with the terms of reference, we agreed on a fee,” she said.

The Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s sentencing of Anwar to five years’ jail after convicting him of sodomising in 2008 his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. – June 2, 2017.