RM1,000 ‘officially’ paid to Shafee, says Nancy

(FMT) – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri said to her knowledge, lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has only been paid RM1,000 for his role as prosecutor in the Sodomy 2 case at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

The minister said she was not aware of any other alleged payments made to Shafee as she was not privy to the arrangements made by the Attorney-General’s (AG) Chambers, reported Malaysiakini.

Nancy said her answer to Parliament in 2015 that Shafee had only received RM1,000 was based on information given to her by the AG’s Chambers.

“That answer remains unchanged now,” said Nancy, who was the de facto law minister in 2015.

“As far as I remember, whatever response was given to me to reply in Parliament, that was the official one,” she told Malaysiakini.

According to media reports, whistleblower site Sarawak Report had claimed that Shafee received two payments totalling RM9.5 million directly from Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The Batang Sadong MP, however, said she was unaware of this.

“I do not know. I mean all those allegations, I cannot confirm nor refute them because as far as I’m concerned, officially, the answer given to me was RM1,000,” Nancy was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.

The government enlisted Shafee’s services to lead the prosecution team at the Court of Appeal and later the Federal Court in the Sodomy 2 trial, instead of the conventional practice of relying on public prosecutors.

The Court of Appeal sentenced Anwar to five years’ imprisonment on March 7, 2014, overturning his previous acquittal by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on the charge that he sodomised his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

On appeal, the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015, upheld the decision to convict Anwar.

Following the allegation in the Sarawak Report, Anwar’s lawyers filed a legal challenge seeking to overturn his conviction.