Muhammad Shafee being escort by MACC personnel. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of receiving money from illegal activities totalling RM9.5 million from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and two counts of filing incorrect statements to the Inland Revenue Board, was allowed bail of RM1 million with two sureties by the Sessions Court here.
Judge Azura Alwi also allowed the application by counsel Harvinder Singh, who appeared for Muhammad Shafee, that a bail of RM500,000 be paid yesterday while the balance would be settled on Sept 18.
The judge also ordered Muhammad Shafee to surrender his two passports namely the international passport and diplomatic passport to the court until the conclusion of the case and fixed Oct 2 for re-mention of the case.
Earlier in the proceedings, former Federal Court judge as well as senior counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who is leading the prosecution team, applied to the court for all the four charges to be read to Muhammad Shafee, who was in the dock for the accused and who was not handcuffed.
As soon as all the charges were read by the interpreter separately, Muhammad Shafee, 66, who was attired in a white shirt and black suit, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Interpreter: Does Tan Sri understand the charges?
Muhammad Shafee: Understand.
Interpreter: Do you (Tan Sri) plead guilty or not?
Muhammad Shafee: (I) plead not guilty.
Deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib later suggested a bail of RM2.5 million with two sureties for the renowned lawyer and that his two passports be surrendered to the court.
However, Harvinder had applied for his client to be released on personal bond with no amount of bail under Section 387 of Criminal Procedure Code.
“My client’s standing as a lawyer is almost 39 years, deputy public prosecutor for six years and also acted for both government and non-government entities in court. If you google, you can see more than 100 cases which he covered.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), he (Muhammad Shafee) was in Johor Bahru in the morning and returned at 6.30pm and met several people … and today (yesterday) he should fly to Penang to handle Sosma cases,” he said adding that his client is a man who is known not to have time dates in court.
Harvinder said this was an extraordinary case because his client had 39 years’ experience in the legal field which the court should have considered.
He said the bail of RM2.5 million proposed by the prosecution was excessive and suggested the court to grant bail of between RM500,000 and RM600,000.
Sri Ram countered that the case was a public interest case and to release the accused on personal bond would be an insult to the public.
“They are serious offences … There is no politics in this..he (Muhammad Shafee) is not a politician. My instruction is for him not to get a special treatment,” Sri Ram said.
Ahmad Akram also said that the prosecution proposed a high bail to demonstrate that the accused must be responsible to be present in court. — Bernama