Court of Appeal gives final postponement to Shafee in his application to strike out AGC officer's affidavit that he received RM9.5m from Najib over Anwar's case

PUTRAJAYA (Sept 9): The Court of Appeal today cautioned that it was giving a final postponement date to Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah (pictured) in his application to intervene and strike out an affidavit filed by an officer of the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) which affirmed that him received RM9.5 million from former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Justice Datuk Lee Swee Seng noted that the case involving opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was a 2017 case, and there had been adjournments sought by Shafee who is the intervener in this case, or his counsel Harvinderjit Singh before this.

When the case was called up, Anwar's counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram informed that Shafee had a matter involving Najib's income tax appeal in another court, while Harvinderjit was not present.

Sri Ram also informed the court that while he would like the matter to proceed, he has an appointment at noon.

Justice Lee asked how many times had this been adjourned and Sri Ram, a former Federal Court judge, informed that it was not at his behest.

Sri Ram said that he was told that Shafee wants to be present in the proceedings as he may want to say something.

Senior federal counsels Suzana Atan and S Narkunavathy, when asked by Justice Lee, said they had no objections to the postponement.

After a short discussion with the other Court of Appeal judges including Datuk P Ravinthran and Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, Justice Lee said the bench was conscious that this is a 2017 case.

"We are granting this [postponement] but this is the final adjournment date. The case will proceed as scheduled on the next date.

"The court directs case management to be fixed via e-review. Please make sure there are no other commitments on that day itself," the judge warned.

During e-review, Anwar's other counsel J Leela said when contacted that the Court of Appeal had now fixed Nov 5 to hear the matter.

Today was fixed for the hearing of Anwar's appeal in his originating summons filed on June 9, 2017, where he claimed that he was not given a fair trial in the sodomy II case whereby he got to know that Shafee received RM9.5 million from Najib after the case went all the way to the Federal Court.

Anwar, who is the Port Dickson Member of Parliament (MP), is seeking a declaration that his conviction (for sodomy II) is ultra vires to the Federal Constitution and thus should be declared null and void.

He also wants an order that the decision by the Federal Court in upholding the Court of Appeal's decision was ultra vires and, therefore, null and void.

Before the appeal was heard in mid-2018, an officer of the AGC affirmed an affidavit that in its probe it found that Shafee did accept the RM9.5 million.

Subsequently, Shafee was charged with money laundering and tax evasion charges in September 2018, of which he had claimed trial.

The trial for Shafee's money laundering and tax evasion charges is still ongoing now. At the same time, he has sought to strike out the affidavit affirmed by the AGC officer.

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