Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed allegations that he lobbied for lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah's appointment as the prosecutor for Sodomy II.

"Shafee wanted so much to become attorney-general. He came to see me. He said the AG at the time cannot prosecute (properly)... They will lose the case... He said he can win.

"I said ‘if you can win, you go tell Najib (Abdul Razak, the prime minister at the time)’. That time, I was still friendly with Najib," Mahathir told a press conference today.

Last week, Shafee revealed that he had met Mahathir in mid-2013 and the duo had talked about the trial.

According to Shafee, it was Mahathir who did not have confidence in the Attorney-General's Chambers’ ability to appeal against the High Court's decision to acquit Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges.

Shafee claims Mahathir "insisted" that he be appointed special prosecutor instead, to which Najib eventually agreed.

Shafee successfully secured the prosecution's case at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court level. Anwar was eventually jailed in February 2015.

However, Anwar is still challenging the validity of the Sodomy II trial on the grounds that Najib had paid Shafee RM9.5 million for the job.

Anwar argued that since he and Najib were political rivals, the payment had compromised the trial.

Yesterday, Shafee was charged in court over that very payment, which prosecutors claim originated from dirty money.

Shafee has claimed that the trial was politically motivated

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