Shafee optimistic about Najib’s chances

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is optimistic about his client’s chances in court because the senior lawyer believes that the former prime minister was charged before the investigations had been completed.

“I’m quite inspired to be able to say that we have a very strong defence.

“I’m also suspicious of the fact that these charges against my client were placed in a hurried fashion because I can see evidence of the investigations being incomplete.

“I’m confident that we will be able to defend the case very effectively,” he said at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex here yesterday.

Muhammad Shafee met reporters outside the courthouse after Najib’s case mention before High Court Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali over three counts of criminal breach of trust, one charge of abuse of power and three counts of money laundering involving SRC International Sdn Bhd funds totalling RM42mil.

He said the prosecution would have to prove his client knew he received money that were proceeds of a crime.

“They must make sure that whoever is being charged with taking the money has knowledge that this was proceeds of the crime. This is for the prosecution to prove.

“So far, they (the prosecution) has not shown this in their charges,” he added.

On whether fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, would be called to court if he was in Malaysia, Muhammad Shafee said: “I hope Jho Low turns up because we may find out the truth.

“We have millions of documents, but we don’t have a human being to give evidence so that they can give meaning and context to the documents.

“If Jho Low was here, we could not avoid having him as a witness. I would love to cross-examine him.”

He also questioned why the appointment of Datuk Sulaiman Abdullah as deputy public prosecutor ( DPP) was an “official secret”.

Earlier in court, Muhammad Shafee complained that the prosecution had yet to show the letter appointing Sulaiman as the lead prosecutor in the criminal case against Najib.

Sulaiman said the Attorney General had classified the appointment as an official secret.

Muhammad Shafee said the public had the right to know how Sulaiman was appointed.

“When I was appointed as the DPP in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s (sodomy appeal) case, Datuk Mohamad Hanafiah Zakaria, who was my assistant, gave the fiat (authorisation) document to the court and a copy to the other side (defence) to say how I was appointed.

“But today in court, Sulaiman stood up and said his appointment is an official secret.

“You say the New Malaysia is supposed to be transparent. But according to him, the Attorney General has stamped it as an official secret.

“Why is the appointment of a DPP an official secret when the appointment of all the other DPPs in the Attorney General’s Chambers are published in the government gazette for the whole world to know?” he asked.