Reveal Shafee’s fees to prosecute Anwar, hold roadshow, urges DAP

Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s intention to go on a roadshow to explain the guilty verdict of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has drawn criticism from many. Opposition party DAP wants Putrajaya to reveal how much the lawyer was paid to prosecute the de facto PKR chief and whether he will receive a sum for staging the roadshow. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 21, 2015.

Putrajaya must reveal how much Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was paid to prosecute Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and whether he will receive payment to stage the roadshow explaining the opposition leader’s guilty verdict, says the DAP.

Its parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang, said taxpayers were entitled to know these as they paid for the Umno lawyer’s cheque as lead prosecutor in the case at both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.

He added that "unprecedented and questionable nationwide roadshow" by Shafee also raised questions if the lawyer was acting as public prosecutor or an “Umno prosecutor”.

"Are the services of Shafee equivalent to the remuneration of the Attorney-General (A-G) for a whole year? And if so, why did Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail not lead the prosecution team himself?" Lim said in a statement today.

The Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria on February 10 dismissed Anwar’s final appeal against his conviction for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

PAS Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin had raised the same question, urging Putrajaya to reveal the sum paid to Shafee for successfully winning the case against Anwar.

Lim also hit out at Shafee for embarking on an Umno-backed roadshow to explain the judgment against Anwar.

"Malaysian taxpayers are also entitled to know whether they are paying for Shafee’s nationwide roadshow. If so, the exact full amount. And whether he is rendering his services to Umno pro bono," he said.

In a statement yesterday, Lim said the roadshow was testimony to Shafee’s loss in the court of public opinion despite winning the case against Anwar.

Lim added today that despite Shafee's attacks against Anwar, it was encouraging to hear voices of reason from both inside and outside of Umno, criticising the roadshow supported by its youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

- TMI