LAWYER Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has explained his hand injury came about playing with his pet dog as he received ridicule yesterday when he sought a postponement for Najib Razak’s appeals relating to the SRC International case.
Shafee said his hand is not broken but that he fell after his dog playfully jumped at him.
“I fell. That’s how I got injured. The doctor told me I got lucky because he thought it was broken before my hand was X-rayed. He was so sure it was broken,” he said while showing his swollen hand to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex today.
“But the X-ray shows that my soft tissue and blood capillaries are severely injured. So, there was a lot of bleeding. And this swelling is caused by the blood around it. The pain is quite excruciating.”
Shafee said his pet is a young guard dog in training and of a mongrel-pedigree mix.
“He’s only ten months old but he’s bigger than an adult dog. He’s in training.
“This is a guard dog that is little playful. He was trying to play with me and I fell back. It’s not caused by him. I was careless in the way I moved. It’s a good guard dog.”
He said he kept a few guard dogs at his house and also in his office compound.
“If you go to my office, I’ve got two Belgian Malinois. If you come in uninvited, they will take your hand away. They’re very fierce guard dogs.”
Shafee also said he did not specifically request the court yesterday for a postponement on the hearing of Najib’s appeals.
He said he is willing to continue the matter today, but the court has decided to have the hearing on Friday.
He added he was injured on Monday, prior to appearing before the Court of Appeal the same day when the first of Najib’s interlocutory applications in relations to SRC International was heard.
“At that time, my hand was already injured. It was already painful but not terrible. The swellingwas not obvious.”
But by early Tuesday, Shafee said the pain was worsened.
However, he continued with case mention on the murder charge of Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan at the Shah Alam court on Tuesday, where he represented Samirah Muzaffar, Nazrin’s wife who is one of the accused.
“I thought either I have broken a bone or something else has happened. Early in the morning I could not read my notes because of the pain. I actually got up at 2am to try to (prepare for the case).”
Shafee said he then made an appointment with Columbia Hospital in Shah Alam but found there was no specialist on duty before 8am.
Since the case at the Shah Alam court was scheduled at 9am, he decided to go to court.
He was late to the Court of Appeal for Najib’s applications, and by that time, his hand had swollen to “half the size of a tennis ball”.
“I wanted to continue today, this morning. This is important because there’s been a lot of (news) reporting that I asked for Friday. No.”
He said the court thought it was better to move the case to Friday as Attorney-General Tommy Thomas was not available on Thursday.
“I did not ask for Friday, that is important,” said Shafee.
Social media users yesterday lampooned Shafee, accusing him of deliberately delaying Najib’s cases. Trial for the former prime minister’s corruption cases has yet to start, despite the first batch of charges being brought against him last July.
Najib faces a total of 42 charges related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
His interlocutory appeals involve a bid to remove lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah as fiat prosecutor; a gag order prohibiting the media from discussing merits of his criminal cases and as well as for the recovery of documents and statements from prosecutors.
On July 4, Najib was charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust and one charge of abusing his position over SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.
On August 8, he was charged with three counts of money laundering involving the same amount.
His SRC trial, which was scheduled on February 12, was adjourned after the appellate court allowed Najib’s application to stay the trial pending the outcome of his appeals.
– The Malaysian Insight
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