PARLIAMENT De facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri has revealed that senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah was only paid RM1,000 to serve as lead prosecutor in Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's Sodomy II trial.

"The total sum received by Shafee was only RM1,000," she told Parliament in response to a question from Er Teck Haw (DAP-Bakri).

This is the first time the government is revealing the amount paid to Shafee after the question was raised multiple times in Parliament.

Nancy ( right ) disclosed that Shafee had initially declined the payment offered by the government on the grounds of transparency and accountability.

"He did not want the payment we offered and only agreed on the payment after the terms and conditions were set," she added.

She said the government was not able to reveal the total payment to Shafee previously as it was bound by client-counsel ethics.

"We could not reveal the total payment made previously for Shafee's service, out of respect for the professional relationship between the client (government) and counsel (Shafee).

"The disclosure of the total payment for his service can only be made with the consent of both parties,” she explained.

Shafee picked because of vast experience

Nancy also said that Shafee was chosen to represent the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) because of his vast experience as a lawyer and as  a former deputy public prosecutor (DPP).

"His experience as DPP then and now as a defence lawyer is seen as a value-added point in handling Anwar's case at the Federal Court level.

"Shafee agreed to take on the case based on the offer of the AGC. The reason a private lawyer was hired was to avoid this kind of slander (tomahan)," she said, referring to Pakatan Rakyat's accusation that Anwar’s trial and verdict had political interference.

Er had asked the prime minister to state the total cost paid to Shafee throughout Anwar's trial in both the Court of Appeal (last year) and Federal Court (in February).

The Federal Court upheld the opposition leader’s conviction and five-year prison term, as decided by the Court of Appeal.