I note the report in Malaysiakini yesterday titled, ‘New info’ confirms Najib paid Shafee RM9.5m’ in which it was reported that a special task officer of the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) had submitted an affidavit to the Court of Appeal exhibiting documents allegedly showing that the said amount was paid by Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak to Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in two separate tranches on 11.9.2013 and 14.2.2014 respectively.
The said new information, which amounts to fresh evidence in court, raises a most serious allegation that Shafee may have had an interest in the prosecution of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his sodomy 2 appeals in the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.
No doubt, the law provides for the appointment of Shafee to represent the government in the said appeals as an advocate and solicitor but such appointment must be free from bias or suspicion as the integrity of the prosecution in the said appeals cannot, at any costs, be seen to have been compromised.
Shafee is on record as describing as “nonsense” that he was paid RM9.5 million by Najib which indicates that he himself is well aware of the seriousness of such an allegation.
The said fresh evidence by the AGC directly contradicts Shafee’s stand that the said allegation is nonsense and strikes at the very core of the prosecution of the said appeals as, if the prosecutor had an interest in their outcomes having been remunerated by a potential witness (Najib), then surely the said prosecutions cannot be said to be free from bias and suspicion.
It is elementary that any prosecution must not only be fair but must also be seen to be so and it is for this reason alone that the said fresh evidence must be thoroughly investigated as the outcome of such investigation may well affect the validity of the outcomes of the said appeals.
Shafee cannot remain silent on such a serious allegation. He must clear the air and categorically deny the same as his failure to do so will only attract an irresistible inference that his position as prosecutor in the said appeals was indeed compromised and I urge him to take this opportunity to do so forthwith.