Govt will look into claims Shafee received RM9.5m to prosecute Anwar

PETALING JAYA: The government will eventually look into claims that lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah received payments amounting to RM9.5 million from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak to be the prosecutor in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's second sodomy trial.
However, Mahathir said that at the moment, there were many other charges against Najib himself which are of the utmost priority.
"There are many other charges against Najib. Many things he has done, we have to choose which ones we have to manage," he said.
He said that these investigations and charges against Najib will take time, because parties and individuals involved are not giving their full cooperation.
"Already there are charges framed against him. I'm quite sure in time, we will, as investigations take time because we don't always get the full cooperation of those who know the facts or the documents to back the allegations," said Dr Mahathir after chairing the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting in Petaling Jaya today.
Anwar filed the suit last June saying he had been denied a fair trial following allegations by Sarawak Report that RM9.5 million was transferred to Shafee from Najib's private account.
Anwar alleged that the Court of Appeal's decision on March 7, 2014, to convict him of sodomising Saiful Bukhari Azlan was done in an unconstitutional manner.
The Court of Appeal's decision was upheld by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.
The government had given Shafee a temporary licence to become an ad-hoc prosecutor to conduct the appeal which led the court to set aside Anwar's acquittal by the High Court in 2012.