Lawyer Shafee Abdullah admitted to rephrasing some witness testimonies or evidence submitted in Anwar Ibrahim's trial during a public forum after the former opposition leader was jailed.

Shafee, who was lead prosecutor in the Sodomy II case, said this while being cross examined by Ambiga Sreenevasan at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

"There have been times I rephrased evidence but I kept true to the evidence," he said.

Shafee was grilled on a statement he made during a talk on Feb 17 last year that Anwar had 'mencubit-cubit' (pinched) his aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari's nipples.

Ambiga cited a news report which stated that this was not in evidence, and that prosecution witness Dr Razuin Rahimi's testimony was that Anwar had "fondled Saiful's breast".

Shafee however stood his ground.

"'Mencubit-cubit' is within the concept of fondling especially in the context of a man," he told the court.

He also defended his use of the word “mencubit-cubit”, saying it did not translate well into English.

"Pinching is a very clinical term in English. It could be hurting, playful and so on.

"Mencubit-cubit is certainly not an act to hurt but an act of love, of liking, or seduction," he added.

Shafee said this in his trial against senior lawyer Tommy Thomas, former Court of Appeal judge VC George, the Malaysian Bar, and former Bar Council president Christopher Leong.

The suit, filed last year, was meant to stop Thomas and George from tabling a motion in the Malaysian Bar AGM, which called for Shafee to be brought to the Bar's disciplinary board for the road-shows and interviews that he had given after securing Anwar's conviction at the Federal Court.

They said Shafee's actions of holding press conferences in criticising Anwar violated Rules 5(a), 31, 32, 33 and 49 of the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978, and that Anwar who is serving time in prison cannot reply to the claims.

The defence will continue to cross-examine Shafee next Tuesday.