Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim has "slanted" what he had said in making his statutory declaration of Oct 7, senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah claimed today.

Shafee, who was appointed by Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail to lead the prosecution in its appeal against the acquittal of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in his second sodomy, said in reply to journalists that they should read his affidavit in reply to Anwar's application.

NONEAnwar has again applied for Shafee to be removed as lead prosecutor in the attorney-general's Sodomy II appeal, after his first bid failed.

"My affidavit is supported by former (Commercial Crime Investigations Department director) Ramli Yusuff. I do not need to ask Matthias Chang to affirm it, but there is no need to trouble Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad)," Shafee said.

"But there will be interesting revelations at the hearing (of Anwar's application to disqualify him again), on Mat Zain's relationship with Anwar," he added.

Revealing further, Shafee asked reporters whether they were aware Mat Zain had filed a suit against Anwar and what had happened to it.

The senior lawyer said the suit apparently had fizzled out because both parties did not turn up.

It is believed Shafee was referring to Anwar’s police report against Ganil, then-inspector-general of police Musa Hassan, Mat Zain and also Hospital Kuala Lumpur pathologist Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof following alleged fabrication in the black-eye incident.

Mat Zain was the investigating officer in the black-eye suffered by Anwar.

Following the report, Mat Zain filed legal action against Anwar as his name was implicated.

A three-member panel headed by former Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman was formed by the then-Anti Corruption Commission to look into Anwar’s complaint and in a majority decision, it cleared Musa and Gani of any allegation of fabrication of evidence.

Earlier, Mat Zain wanted the government to clear his name, for which he sent a legal letter to solicitor-general Idrus Harun on June 5, 2009, declaring that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that Gani and Musa were the ones involved.

New application cites SD

Anwar had made an application to disqualify Shafee from heading the prosecution’s team following the statutory declaration Mat Zain made in October, about a meeting he had with Shafee and Mahathir, along with Ramli.

In his fresh application, Anwar cites parts of from Mat Zain’s SD, including:

i) Shafee knew of Gani’s action in deliberately suppressing important evidence in the Pulau Batu Puteh hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2007 that caused Malaysia to lose the island to Singapore;

ii) Shafee told Mat Zain that “you will not believe your eyes if you were to see the amount of cash that was transferred into Gani’s account in Hong Kong”;

iii) Shafee agreed with Mat Zain that Gani had fabricated evidence against Anwar during the ‘black-eye’ investigation;

iv) Shafee agreed it was indeed true that Dr Abdul Rahman, a forensic consultant at HKL had fabricated evidence in Anwar’s ‘black-eye’ investigation;

v) Shafee was also of the view that the three-member panel chaired by Abdul Kadir and Court of Appeal judges Mohd Nor Abdullah and Mohd Nor Ahmad, who in a 2009 majority decision cleared Gani and former IGP Musa Hassan of allegations of tampering with his blood sample, was in fact an unconstitutional sitting.

Earlier, shortly after Mat Zain's SD came to public attention, Shafee had denied the existence of a plot to oust Gani during his meeting with Mat Zain and Mahathir.