Ganti rugi Badan Peguam untuk Shafee dikurang kepada RM120,000

The Malaysian High Court Appeal Court has reduced Shafee Abdullah's penalty for violating professional body regulations from RM340,000 to RM120,000. The three-judge panel, comprising Choo Kah Sing, Evrol Mariette Peters, and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid, rejected Shafee's appeal to increase the RM340,000 awarded by the High Court last year.

Judges Evrol Mariette Peters and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid authored the unanimous decision, emphasizing that the penalty and quantum must be substantiated with facts, not mere speculation. The panel also acknowledged that despite the unauthorised actions by the Bar Council, they did not automatically imply malicious intent. The court lowered the RM200,000 awarded for reputation and emotional distress by the High Court to RM100,000.

However, the panel maintained the RM20,000 exemplary damages mandated by the High Court. Choo instructed both the Bar Council and Shafee to bear their respective costs. The case arose from a series of seminars in February 2015, where Shafee discussed the Federal Court's Liwat II Anwar Ibrahim ruling, which convicted the PKR president of fraud and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Anwar later received a full royal pardon, citing the judgment as blatant injustice. Shortly after the seminar series, Bar Council members Tommy Thomas and VC George filed an appeal at the Bar Council's Annual General Meeting (AGM), alleging Shafee had breached rules prohibiting lawyers from self-promotion and requesting the Bar Council to censure him severely.

They also asked the Bar Council to refer the matter to the Professional Conduct Board and the Bar Council's disciplinary committee. Shafee's initial compensation was dismissed by the High Court in 2016, maintaining the decision at the Appeal Court in 2018. However, the High Court panel ruled in Shafee's favor in 2021, instructing the High Court to assess the penalty, which has now been reduced.