Shafee had his day in court, should stop attacking Anwar, say lawyers

Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee has not stopped attacking Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim even after the conclusion of the sodomy trial, which saw the opposition leader being sent to jail. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 14, 2015.

The lead prosecutor in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial has come under more fire from lawyers over his attacks against the jailed leader, with some calling the Umno lawyer's tirade totally unacceptable and very unprofessional.

They said Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee, who was ad-hoc deputy public prosecutor, had gone beyond the four walls of the case and was now persecuting Anwar who could not rebut him.

They added that Shafee should not be talking too much about the case as he had his day in the courtroom, and also should not discuss the matter even in his capacity as lawyer because he was an interested party.

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan said as state prosecutor, Shafee could only speak in the interest of the state and not for reasons construed as personal.

"Shafee should not be giving media interviews and use it to attack a convicted person," Syahredzan (pic, right) said, adding that his conduct was very unprofessional.

  
Syahredzan said it was disappointing to see a senior member of the Bar resorting to making disparaging statements, although Shafee would have stayed within the limits if he had merely praised the prosecution for successfully securing a conviction.
  
"It is not to the level of professionalism that we would have expected from a senior and prominent lawyer like Shafee," he added.
  
Syahredzan, who is a Bar Council member, was responding to Shafee's interview in the pro-government The New Straits Times (NST) yesterday.

Shafee had said Anwar hid behind a skirt by choosing to give a statement from the dock when ordered to enter his defence.

He said that if Anwar had taken the stand, the torrent of questions would have been so unrelenting that Anwar would have "fainted in the witness box".

Shafee also told the NST that Anwar declined to utilise the defence of alibi to prove that was not at the crime scene because the accused knew it would fall flat.
 
Anwar had lined up 13 witnesses, including his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, but his lawyers during the trial decided against using the defence on grounds some of them were harassed.

"I think he would have fainted in the witness box because he wouldn't be able to explain a lot of things, like why he put in his defence of alibi and then backed off," Shafee said, according to the report.

The lawyer also urged everyone to read the written judgement posted on the judiciary's website to understand how the Federal Court arrived at its decision, saying it was based entirely on facts and not ideas entertained by the opposition and the Bar Council.
 
Shafee challenged anyone to a debate to dissect the judgment, adding that he fought to the best of his ability to convict Anwar with a clear conscience and was 100% sure of the opposition leader's guilt.

Anwar, 67, claimed trial to a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 30, at a condominium in Bukit Damansara in Kuala Lumpur between 3.10pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.

A five-man bench led by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria, however, retained the five-year jail term imposed by the Court of Appeal last year.

Lawyer Ramesh Sivakumar said his understanding was that all government prosecutors were governed by service protocols and this included refraining from giving their legal opinions.
 
"Shafee is entitled to offer his professional opinion if he was not involved in the case but it's definitely a 'no' in his capacity as ad-hoc deputy public prosecutor," he added.
 
Ramesh said after prosecuting Anwar in the court room, Shafee's remarks were tantamount to persecuting the Permatang Pauh MP.
 
He questioned whether other prosecutors could now do the same after securing a final conviction in the apex court.
 
Former Bar Council chairman Ragunath Kesavan said Shafee should stop making comments once the court proceedings was over.

Ragunath (pic, left) said Shafee should not speculate and come up with hypothesis of "ifs" and "buts" once judgment was delivered.
  
"His conduct was unbecoming as he has gone overboard in this case," said Ragunath.
 
"He is the last person who should be discussing the case once his function as deputy public prosecutor came to an end. It would have been alright for him to comment about the case if he had been an independent observer," he added.
 
Criminal lawyer R.S.N. Rayer said Anwar's decision to give unsworn statement was one of the three options available to an accused person once ordered to enter defence.

"I think it is improper for Shafee to act like a judge and attack Anwar just because the Federal Court did not accept the defence's arguments," he added.
 
Rayer said the conduct of Shafee since Tuesday when the verdict was pronounced led one to believe that he was hungry for fame and glory.
 
He said there were glaring shorcomings in the prosecution's case like the credibility of the main witness, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, and that Anwar should have been acquitted at the close of the prosecution case.

Rayer said he respectfully accepted the judgment but the reasons advanced to convict Anwar would be subject to scrutiny by the legal fraternity and academicians.

On Thursday, former Bar Council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said that it was unprecedented for Shafee to attack an accused person after the court delivered its verdict.

Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh also took Shafee to task for misleading the public for saying the late Karpal Singh had accused Anwar of sexual misconduct in late 1997 .

Ramkarpal, the son of the late DAP leader who who died in a road accident last year, said Karpal raised the matter in Parliament with the aim of demanding a thorough investigation to clear Anwar of such allegations

Karpal had then repeatedly stated that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the then police chief Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Nor and the late attorney-general, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah had cleared Anwar of any sexual wrongdoing.

However, in 1998, after Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister, he was charged with sodomy and corruption, which many believed was politically motivated.

- TMI