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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

It’s final, Umno lawyer Shafee will head sodomy prosecution, Federal Court rules

The Federal Court rules that Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is 'fit and proper' to be DPP. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 14, 2014.The Federal Court rules that Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is 'fit and proper' to be DPP. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 14, 2014.
The Federal Court has dismissed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's final application to disqualify Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as deputy public prosecutor in his sodomy case.
Chief Justice Tun Arifin Z‎akaria said Anwar should have filed a judicial review against Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail's discretion to appoint Shafee as DPP.
He said the grounds raised by ‎Anwar's lawyer, Tommy Thomas, was devoid of merit.
Arifin said the failure to direct the action against the A-G was good enough to dismiss Anwar's appeal.
The top judge also said there was no conflict of interest on Shafee's part just because the lawyer had found Jude Blacious Pereira, the investigating officer in Anwar's sodomy case, an unreliable witness in a separate inquiry.
Shafee was chairman of a three-man Suhakam inquiry panel in 2009 which found Pereira to be an untruthful witness in another case.
"Shafee's position was not compromised and this is not sufficent to disqualify him," said Arifin.
Earlier, Shafee told the court that he cannot be disqualified on grounds of conflict of interest simply because he is now defending Pereira.
He said Pereira's testimony in the sodomy case could not be dismissed because he was an unreliable witness in another case.
"The integrity of the appeal is also not compromised because Pereira was not a party to the case, but a witness," he said.
Thomas said Shaffee must be removed from appearing as DPP because of a special relationship with Pereira as a result of him finding the retired police officer an unreliable witness.
Thomas also told the court Shafee had been found guilty of professional misconduct and was fined RM5,000 by the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board.
Shafee replied that he was fined because a newspaper reporter made a laudatory remark that he was a top lawyer.
"I was not found guilty for being dishonest or committing fraud," he said, adding that he was appealing against the decision.
Anwar later told reporters that he was not surprised by the verdict and that his legal team would be fully prepared to take on the prosecution.
"We will put up a good fight," he said.
Anwar had first challenged the legality of Shafee's appointment under the Criminal Procedure Code but this was dismissed by the Federal Court on November 20 last year.
His second application to disqualify Shafee, based on a statutory declaration by former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, was also dismissed by the Federal Court on February 11.
On March 7, the Court of Appeal overturned the January 9, 2012, High Court decision in acquitting Anwar on a charge of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
He allegedly committed the offence at a unit of the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara, between 3.10pm and 4.30pm, on June 26, 2008.
A three-member Court of Appeal bench sentenced Anwar to five years' jail, but granted him a stay on the sentence pending his appeal to the Federal Court.
Anwar was released on a RM10,000 bail in one surety.
The prosecution has also filed a cross-appeal for a higher jail sentence.
- TMI

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