Shafee: Dr M pushed for Najib to appoint me as Anwar prosecutor

(Mkini) – Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah claims it was Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had pushed for him to be appointed as a special prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II trial.

Shafee claimed that in 2013, then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was not keen on appointing him as a prosecutor by way of fiat, as he did not want to offend the attorney-general at the time, Abdul Gani Patail.

“In fact, he was most reluctant.

However, it was Mahathir who insisted that I be appointed as the special prosecutor in Anwar’s appeals, as Mahathir did not have the confidence that the Attorney-General’s Chambers would be able to competently manage the appeals.

“This is probably due to the fact that the AGC had lost the Sodomy II case in the High Court,” he said in a statement today.

Shafee said this in denying “new information” from the AGC claiming that he had indeed received RM9.5 million from Najib, which coincided with the Sodomy II trial.