Court authorizes Shafee to intervene in Anwar's appeal

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today allowed counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to intervene in Anwar Ibrahim's appeal of his civil action against the government over his conviction for sodomy.

Judge Vernon Ong, who chaired a three-person training, said that Shafee's legal interest would be affected, the essence of the complaint in the subpoena that had been pronounced against Anwar concerned allegations of payment of RM 9.5 million.

"It is clear that Shafee was not only a party to an application for discovery of documents to the High Court, but also filed a deposition application and appeared twice in court. Shafee should be allowed to intervene in this call, "he said.

However, Ong rejected Shafee's request to strike an affidavit prepared by the Attorney General's special agent, Siti Rahayu Mohd Mumazaini, and cross-examine her.

The other judges on the panel were Judges Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

Shafee asked to intervene in the appeal following the affidavit confirmed by Siti Rahayu, according to which new information had been discovered according to which 9.5 million RMY had been paid into the bank accounts of the former Prime Minister Najib Razak between 2013 and 2014.

On June 9, Anwar, chairman of the PKR, filed a subpoena against the government, claiming that he had not benefited from a fair trial in connection with the case. appeal against his conviction for Sodomy II.

He asked to be declared that his conviction by the Court of Appeal on March 7, 2014 was ultra vires the Federal Constitution and was therefore null and void. He also wanted to overturn the Federal Court's decision upholding his conviction.

In his affidavit, Anwar said that Shafee had received RM 9.5 million from Najib to lead the prosecution team in appealing his sodomy conviction.

The Federal Court upheld the conviction of Mr. Anwar and his five-year prison sentence for sodomizing his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Anwar, however, obtained the King's grace on May 16th.

His initial appearance was dropped by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on November 8th. The court allowed the government's request on the grounds that the case had no cause of action and was an abuse of the judicial process.

Lawyer Harvinderjit Singh represented Shafee while Lawyer Gopal Sri Ram was appearing for Anwar. Senior Federal Councilor Amarjeet Singh appeared for the government.