SHAH ALAM, 17 Dec: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claims that Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is taking his role as the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) in his sodomy case appeal with hopes of becoming the future Attorney General.
The Opposition Leader said that many politicians and practitioners of law in Kuala Lumpur know that Shafee openly states his ambitions to replace Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail as the Attorney General.
“This explains why Shafee is so critical towards Gani regarding the statutory declaration (Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim),” he said in the second affidavit supporting the appeal of why Shafee should be removed from acting as the DPP in the sodomy case.
He said that the line-up of prosecutors cannot handle the case fairly because Shafee is inclined and is on the side of the Prime Minister and other senior leaders of the government by ensuring that they are not convicted of any wrong, so that the Umno lawyer can be awarded the position of Attorney General, which he dreams of.
Anwar filed the affidavit yesterday and the appeal will be heard at the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
The PKR de facto leader said that Shafee’s desire to ensure that Putrajaya wins the appeal is very high and this may affect his responsibility as the chief DPP in the case.
“The conflict of interest will only affect fair administration. He will certainly be prejudiced against me during the appeal hearing,” said Anwar, quoted from The Malaysian Insider.
Anwar was acquitted last year on the charge of sodomising his former assistant, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, at a condominium unit in Desa Damansare in 2008.
He said that his appeal to remove Shafee for the second time was done on grounds of the shocking revelation about Mat Zain’s statutory declaration.
Anwar said that the declaration evokes a serious issue on Shafee’s knowledge about the charge of misconduct and criminal actions of Gani, and the lawyer has to compromise to obtain the fiat from Gani.
In his affidavit, apart from the police report made by Mat Zain against Shafee, he said that the lawyer’s affidavit to the Court of Appeal contains inaccurate facts and this is a criminal offence.
