Veteran lawyer Shafee Abdullah, who helped put opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim behind bars, continued his media blitz, taking aim at former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan today.

 

Shafee, who was engaged by the Attorney-General's Chambers to prosecute Anwar, took issue with Ambiga's statement that BN made a "terrible mistake" by sending Anwar to jail.

 

"Ambiga made stories that BN made a mistake by jailing Anwar. Are the courts BN?

 

"Ambiga should be charged with contempt of court for suggesting that the courts are part of BN.

 

"I propose to the attorney-general to take action," he was quoted as saying in an interview published in Mingguan Malaysia today.

 

The Federal Court on Tuesday upheld Anwar's sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence.

 

Following this, Shafee gave a series of interviews where he attacked Anwar for claiming the Sodomy II charge was a political conspiracy.

 

Ambiga had then criticised Shafee for his conduct.

 

However, Shafee said he was only rebutting claims that Anwar was framed.

 

'New practice in chambers to attack convicted persons?'

 

Meanwhile, DAP legal bureau chief Gobind Singh Deo today urged the attorney-general to rein in Shafee.

 

"I urge attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to state if it is the new practice of his chambers to attack and criticise accused persons, particularly after they have been convicted and are in prison serving sentence.

"Does he prosecute, get them convicted, put handcuffs on them, send them to prison and then go on a public rampage against them without giving them any opportunity to defend themselves?" said Gobind ( right ) in a statement today.

 

Gobind urged Gani to put a lid on Shafee's post-conviction comments about Anwar which he said is embarrassing the Attorney-General's Chambers.

 

In addition, he also urged the Bar Council to respond to Shafee’s post-conviction conduct.

 

"I also call upon the Bar Council to state its position on the matter.

 

“We must now consider and set the markers clearly in cases where members of the Bar are invited to prosecute, for their conduct in such capacity would impact on the reputation of members of the Bar generally, and the level of ethics which is to be expected of lawyers in practice," said Gobind.