(Sept 13): Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has slammed the Government for denying him a fair trial by slapping anti-money laundering charges against his lead lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee.

In a Facebook post today, Najib wrote: "The AMLA charges against my lead lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for receiving payments from my party for services rendered is yet another step to deny me a fair trial.

"It can be seen as an attempt to intimidate or disqualify him and other lawyers from representing me in my case."

He added that prior to this, the judge in his case was suddenly changed while the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) had appointed two outside lawyers to lead the prosecution case against him.

"This is counter to the long-held claim by PH previously that the AGC should never have appointed an outside lawyer in Tan Sri Shafee to act as prosecutor in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trials. Now the AGC has appointed not one but two outside lawyers to act as prosecutors," he said.

Najib added that he had recently disclosed via bank documents that he had received substantial amounts directly as a political donation from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance and a Saudi Arabian prince who acted for King Abdullah.

"These monies were used to pay Tan Sri Shafee towards account of payment of fees for services that his firm rendered as lawyers for my party over many cases over the years including for election petition cases in GE12 and GE13 for BN leaders such as former PM Tun Abdullah Badawi, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and many others. A lawyer works for fees and he or she is entitled to payment for their services.

"Charging Tan Sri Shafee for receiving payments for legal services rendered sets a very dangerous legal precedent for all lawyers, professionals and businesses.

"No one will be safe if the government choose to victimise or to politically persecute you," he said.

Najib also questioned the speed of Shafee's persecution as "it comes mere days after Tan Sri Shafee had correctly pointed out that it was the current Prime Minister who had ordered to make Tan Sri Shafee as the lead prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trials — a fact that neither Tun Mahathir, his long-time aide who arranged for the meeting or the previous Attorney-General has yet to comment or deny".

He added: "The timing of Tan Sri Shafee's charges is surprising as I have yet to be interviewed by MACC or had a chance to submit my documents over this case. This means that investigations were clearly not complete before Tan Sri Shafee was charged.

"Tan Sri Shafee's persecution also comes hot on the heels on the AGC controversially dropping two corruption charges against the current Finance Minister — a case that was already undergoing trial where 20 witnesses have been heard.

"Additionally, more than a dozen other charges against Pakatan political leaders and those aligned to them were also similarly dropped in the previous months."