KUALA LUMPUR – The High Court today struck out Anwar Ibrahim’s suit against the government over allegations that RM9.5 million was paid to senior lawyer Shafee Abdullah to prosecute the former opposition leader in his Sodomy 2 case.
High Court judge Justice Azizah Nawawi allowed the government to strike out the suit on the grounds that Anwar’s claims regarding the RM9.5 million payment were “bare allegations”.
“He has not given any evidence to support his allegations,” she said in her judgment which was made available to the media.
Azizah also ordered Anwar to pay the government RM10,000 in costs.
In an immediate response, Shafee who was present during the decision, said the allegations about him taking RM9.5 million were “total nonsense”.
“I was never paid RM9.5 million to prosecute Anwar’s case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anwar’s lawyer N Surendran said he had received instructions to file an immediate appeal against today’s decision.
Anwar’s lawyer N Surendran (middle) speaking to reporters outside the court.
“We were very disappointed by today’s decision and we will argue it at the Court of Appeal,” he said.
During the last hearing, Anwar’s lawyers argued that the Court of Appeal’s decision on March 7, 2014, to convict him for sodomising Saiful Bukhari Azlan was done in an unconstitutional manner.
The appeals court’s decision was upheld by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.
The lawyers argued that Anwar was denied a fair trial under Article 5 (1) of the Federal Constitution.
It was also submitted that a fair trial meant the right to prosecute must be done by an independent person, not by someone who had a personal interest.
In this case, the court was told that there was an un-rebutted allegation that the prosecution was paid RM9.5 million in two tranches by Prime Minister Najib Razak, a material witness in Anwar’s sodomy case.
They said Shafee, as prosecutor, had a financial interest and was not a fair prosecutor.
The government had given a temporary licence to Shafee to be made ad-hoc prosecutor to conduct the appeal that led the court to set aside Anwar’s acquittal by the High Court in 2012.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers, representing the government, argued that the striking-out application should be allowed because Anwar’s suit was about setting aside the criminal conviction.
They said Anwar had filed another suit to set aside the sodomy conviction, on grounds that the Court of Appeal and Federal Court judgments were obtained by fraud.
They added that this was a plain and obvious case to strike out the suit.
The former deputy prime minister has filed two suits: one over not receiving a fair trial, and the second to compel Najib and Shafee to reveal bank account details.
Anwar filed the suits following allegations by Sarawak Report that RM9.5 million had been transferred to lawyer Shafee from Najib’s private account.
– FMT
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