Permission unnecessary to issue statement on Anwar, says Shafee

Former special prosecutor Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has admitted that he did not have written permission from the then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to issue a statement about the Sodomy II trial.

However, he said such permission from the attorney-general is unnecessary, since he had been in constant e-mail and phone communication with Gani.

“There's no need. I'm in constant communication by e-mail and phone with the AG,” he said when asked cross-examined by lawyer Porres Royan.

This pertains to a statement issued by Shafee at the Palace of Justice lobby last year, immediately after the Federal Court upheld the sodomy conviction against then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

When asked whether he has the e-mail giving him permission to issue the statement, Shafee said he is unsure but is convinced he has Gani's permission via phone or e-mail.

When Porres turned his attention to an Umno Youth forum about the Sodomy II trial, Shafee denied that he had disclosed lurid details about Anwar's supposed sexual advances towards his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in order to titillate the audience.

Instead, he said the disclosure was to debunk the Bar Council's objections against the Sodomy II trial.

“I explained it to the audience in a clinical fashion, although it is gory,” he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court presided by Justice Hanipah Farikullah.

[More to follow]

-Mkini