Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has denied claims that he was recently abroad on a secret legal mission for the prime minister and his wife.

Clearly angry when asked about the matter, Shafee initially refused to respond to the press.

When pressed by Malaysiakini , he spat out: "It is utter rubbish! Whatever the press says is utter rubbish!

"If only they know what is the truth. I'm waiting for (the media) to make more mistakes," he said before storming off.

Shafee, who was at the lobby of the Kuala Lumpur court complex in Jalan Duta to receive a parcel from his client S Nallakaruppan, also warned the media not to "make a circus out of nothing".

Link to Scorpene probe?

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution had revealed that Shafee had stated in a letter to the courts that he would be on a three-week confidential overseas assignment for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor from April 2-25.

military malaysia navy french built submarine scorpene class In the letter addressed to Chief Justice Ariffin Zakaria, Court of Appeal president Md Raud Sharif and Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad, Shafee said he would be interviewing witnesses in New York, London, Paris or Basel.

This raised speculation that the mission has something to do with the ongoing French case on the Malaysian purchase of Scorpene submarines.

However, according to an online news site, another letter from Shafee's law firm, dated April 9, said that the lawyer was to attend a law conference in Sydney from April 18-22.