The Court of Appeal judgment in Anwar Ibrahim’s application for the second time to remove lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in the Sodomy II appeal is flawed, claims former chief of the Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department Mat Zain Ibrahim, adding that he did not blot out his name in the October statutory declaration (SD) as stated in the judgment.

Mat Zain, in an open letter to solicitor-general Idrus Harun ( right ) last month, said paragraph 16 of the appellate court judgment stated that his name had been blanked out.

He claimed the misdirection taken by the court in rejecting his statutory declaration is therefore flawed.

“In actual fact, my full name as it appears in my identity card was never blotted out in the Oct 7, 2013 SD. Clearly the finding by the Court of Appeal is a fatal mistake as it misdirected itself into deciding the SD was inadmissible.

“The ones blotted are only my IC number and house address, for security reasons. However, I have never concealed those particulars from the appropriate authorities. Based on this fatal flaw alone, I am of the view that the Court of Appeal’s decision to reject the admissibility of my SD can be invalidated,” Mat Zain said.

He hopes that this matter can be considered by the Federal Court when it hears Anwar’s appeal against the Court of Appeal decision on Feb 11 .

During the hearing of Anwar’s second application to remove Shafee, Shafee described Mat Zain as devious and bankrupt for hiding his particulars in the identity card and address in the SD.

Mat Zain in his SD claimed that Shafee had related to him the alleged misconduct of attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail with regard to the Pulau Batu Puteh issue. However, Shafee denied doing so, saying there was no such discussion and that there was no move to go against Gani.

Typo error on IC particulars

However, Mat Zain admitted making a typo error with regard to the last four digits of his identity card in the SD.

However, as far as his name and address are concerned, the details are correct.

 

“Furthermore, a person or an individual, whether a minister or a judge or a lawyer or a pensioner like me or anyone else, is identified by his name and not by his identity card number or his home address,” Mat Zain said.

The last four digits should have been 5827 and not 5287 but the first six digits are correct, the former senior police officer added.

He denied that he was trying to conceal his identity in the SD as he had introduced himself and described his background in the first few pages of the SD.

Mat Zain claimed he had written numerous open letters, and the matters had been brought for discussion in the cabinet and in Parliament, and that he was indeed the investigating officer for the "black-eye" case.

'Identity concealment should not arise'

“Hence the issue of mistaken identity or concealment of my identity in the SD should not arise at all in deceiving the appellate court. On top of that the contents of my defamation suit against Anwar which I filed in 2008 were also accepted by the Sessions Court in Anwar’s sodomy II trial.

“Where ‘typo errors’ are concerned, even Shafee has admitted in his second affidavit he affirmed on Dec 18, last year that he has made several typo errors and corrected them. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, in his affidavit dated Sept 23, 2011 used during the sodomy II case, also made a typo error with regard to his meeting with the complainant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan,” he said.

Mat Zain said if both Shafee and Najib himself make typo errors in their respective affidavits, then what can one expect from a retired police officer like himself?

He said that he was leaving the matter for the solicitor-general’s attention.