Shafee’s and Ramli’s affidavits: A criminal conspiracy? – Mat Zain Ibrahim

Many people may not realise that the affidavits affirmed by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Datuk Ramli Yusoff, which are the subject of my police report last Sunday, were filed in court by the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Quite simply, what I am saying here is that the full contents of both the affidavits have been vetted, scrutinised and cleared for filing by the Chambers.

The people must also be told that on or about November 1, Ramli had filed a suit against Abdul Gani Patail, Musa Hassan and several others including the government, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police claiming damages totalling RM128.5 million.

And the person who advised and encouraged Ramli to use the black-eye incident evidence as the main cause of action of the suit was none other than Shafee.

Incidentally, Shafee is also the person whom I’ve alleged in my report to have concealed material evidence against Gani and Musa which Shafee received from me on September 24, 2013.

Now, against this backdrop, Gani must explain how could he have allowed both Shafee’s and Ramli’s false affidavits to be filed in court through the AG’s Chambers? Especially Ramli’s, unless a deal was struck.

What kind of deal or game are the trio of Gani, Shafee and Ramli playing before the public eyes now?

Does this mean that by Ramli agreeing to file a false affidavit in this case, his claims would be settled?

I have stated about this suit very briefly in paragraph 55 (h) of my statutory declaration (SD) affirmed on October 7, 2013. If this is not a criminal conspiracy to fleece the government of RM128.5 million of public funds,then what is?
 
As the AG who appointed Shafee, Gani should not have allowed the latter to make whatever affidavit he thinks fit, nor can the AG escape the responsibility of careful investigation or supervision over any affidavits that was filed in courts through his Chambers.

If Shafee has made a typo error or whatever error or misquoted a date, then he must be made to correct it by affirming another affidavit.

The AG surely remember when the Prime Minister himself, in his affidavit dated September 21, 2011, misquoted the date Saiful Bukhari met the then Deputy Prime Minister at his residence stating it as June 26, 2011, the PM was forced to affirm another affidavit on September 23, 2011, to correct the error to June 26, 2008.

Certainly the date August 1, 2013, quoted by Shafee in paragraph 7(q)(ii) was still within the month of Ramadan and not already the third day of Hari Raya when I was brought to meet Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Shafee should be made to correct it. If the PM has to make the correction through affirming another affidavit, who is Shafee to be exempted?.

If Shafee will not give the information which the AG is entitled to, or if Shafee insists on swearing an affidavit which the AG knows to be imperfect, then in order to protect the good name of the office of the Attorney General's Chambers and the government, he should have terminated Shafee’s appointment as the lead prosecutor instantly.

Now that the AG have discovered Shafee’s affidavit to be false, or at the very least accepts that there are strong grounds to suspect that the senior lawyer’s affidavit is false, after testing it against my police report about the matter, the AG owes a duty to the court in putting the matter right at the earliest moment.

Should the AG chooses to remain silent nor willing to take any action,then he and the entire AG’s Chambers must bear the responsibility and consequences for filing false affidavits which was affirmed by Shafee and Ramli, and for allowing the affidavits to be used in the Court of Appeal proceeding.

The AG must be mindful of the fact that the punishment for abetting in the making of a false affidavit and/or allowing it to be used in a judicial proceeding is the same as making and using it himself.

Being the chief legal adviser to the government, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Cabinet, the AG owes a duty to the court to facilitate the police to conduct an in-depth investigation over the report against Shafee in particular, as well as Ramli, for making and using false affidavits, which is a crime against public justice, as defined in the Penal Code, even to the extent of putting on hold the Court of Appeal proceedings.

As the AG, he must not allow any false evidence or material to be tendered at any level of a judicial proceeding, otherwise he deserved to be brought before a tribunal as provided for under the Federal Constitution.

Even as it is now, Gani seems to be unable to properly discharge the functions of his office and this is certainly not good for the country. The PM must step in and take command of the situation right away.

In the likely event that Gani still allows both Shafee’s and Ramli’s affidavits to continue being used in the current Court of Appeal hearing, knowing them to contain false averments, then we can safely deduced that it was the same Gani who in spite of knowing that the controversial Pulau Batu Puteh photograph taken from an anonymous blog was concocted, still continued to present it during the Court of International Justice (ICJ) proceedings.

* Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim is the former Kuala Lumpur CID chief.