Cite Shafee for contempt, Karpal tells Sodomy II judge

Karpal is Anwar’s lead defence counsel in the latter’s ongoing sodomy trial. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 — DAP chairman Karpal Singh wants pro-Umno lawyer Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah hauled up for contempt of court, saying the latter had interfered with proceedings in the ongoing Sodomy II trial.


Karpal urged trial judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah to issue a show-cause notice to Muhammad Shafee to explain the latter’s “unwarranted public attack” against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defence statement from the dock.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, now heads the three-party opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact. Besides being his political ally, Karpal is defending the PKR advisor who stands accused of sodomising a former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, three years ago in a luxury condominium here.

“If what was uttered by Anwar was contemptuous, it would have been contempt in the face of the court. It was for Justice Mohamad Zabidin to hold Anwar in contempt. He did not do so.

“Who is Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to question the wisdom of the trial judge?” Karpal demanded in a media statement today.

Muhammad Shafee, among Malaysia’s legal elites, is regarded as an expert on media contempt laws and was cited yesterday in Umno-owned Mingguan Malaysia calling Anwar’s defence statement as contemptuous.

The top-earning lawyer was reported telling the Attorney-General to step into the row and initiate contempt proceedings against Anwar.

The news was replicated today in other mainstream media, including New Straits Times, which quoted Muhammad Shafee as saying: “This will also prevent the presiding judge from being involved in any possible conflict in which the judge may be blinded by it.”

Karpal objected to Muhammad Shafee’s argument for the A-G’s intervention as unprecedented and defying logic.

“That itself amounts to contempt of court on the part of the judge who does so,” he said.
“Shafee should know a judge cannot interfere in a judicial proceeding in another court. It is axiomatic. It is elementary,” the Bukit Gelugor MP added.

Muhammad Shafee has also come under fire online after Anwar’s unsworn statement of defence from the dock, purportedly for interfering with the news coverage of the controversial court case by issuing certain instructions to mainstream media editors and reporters.

Malaysia’s best-paid lawyer has denied conspiring with staff in the Prime Minister’s Office to subvert the media and end the political career of the man once deemed the biggest threat to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).