I’ll expose Anwar-Mat Zain relationship next week, says Umno lawyer

(MD) – Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (pic) today vowed to expose the relationship between Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, the former Kuala Lumpur CID chief behind a statutory declaration (SD) alleging wrongdoings of the Attorney General.

Shafee said he would do this next week when the Court of Appeal hears Anwar’s second application to disqualify him from leading the prosecution team in Putrajaya’s appeal against Anwar’s acquittal in the second sodomy charge.

“I will make an interesting revelation on a civil suit filed by Mat Zain against Anwar and the subsequent events,” said Shafee.

The senior lawyer said he had filed an affidavit on what transpired in his legal firm and at the residence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Shafee said Mat Zain “slanted” what he had said in his October 7 statutory declaration.

“My affidavit is supported by former (Commercial Crime Investigations Department director) Datuk Ramli Yusuff. I do not need to ask Matthias Chang to affirm it, and there is no need to trouble Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad),” Shafee said when asked to respond on the contents of the SD.

The SD by Mat Zain was prepared following a meeting in Dr Mahathir’s house on August 10 this year, attended by among others Dr Mahathir’s former political secretary Matthias Chang, and Ramli, who briefed the former premier over his run-ins with Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.

Anwar filed the application last week using Mat Zain’s SD as grounds to disqualify Shafee, saying Shafee’s appointment to lead the prosecution team would deny him a fair trial.

The PKR de-facto leader among others said that Shafee knew of Gani’s illegal actions in the Pulau Batu Puteh territorial dispute between Malaysia and Singapore.

Anwar said the SD also pointed to Gani and former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s involvement in fabricating evidence in the “black eye” incident of 1998.

The alleged fabrication took place when Gani was said to have brought in pathologist Dr Abdul Rahman Yusoff to accuse Anwar in court of self-inflicted injuries, contradicting medical reports. A Royal Commission of Inquiry set up later ended with an admission by former police chief Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor that he had beaten Anwar hours after his arrest on September 20, 1998.

Anwar had in 2008 filed a police report against Gani and Musa, who was involved in the first sodomy case brought against Anwar.

A three-member committee, comprising retired judges, formed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), however, later cleared the duo. Shafee reportedly agreed during the meeting in Dr Mahathir’s house that the MACC committee was illegal.

Anwar’s second attempt to disqualify Shafee as the deputy public prosecutor in his trial will be heard on December 19.

On November 21, the Federal Court dismissed Anwar’s appeal, declaring that Gani could give a temporary licence to Shafee to lead the prosecution. Anwar had then filed the application to dismiss Shafee based on the grounds that the appointment was illegal.

Anwar, 66, was acquitted by the High Court on January 9 last year on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara in 2008.