LAWYER Shafee Abdullah, who is charged with four counts of money laundering and tax offences at the Kuala Lumpur sessions court today, says he has a diplomatic passport because he had served as an ambassador-at-large.

“It is still valid. But I received a letter from Wisma Putra (Foreign Affairs Ministry) about one month ago to say that I shouldn’t use my diplomatic passport because I’m no longer an ambassador-at-large.”

“Before I was an ambassador-at-large, I also held the ambassador rank as a representative on the Asean Intergovernmental Commission for Human Rights. Now it’s Edmund Bon. He replaced me,” he told reporters at the Jalan Duta court complex today.

In 2010, Shafee was appointed by the previous government as Malaysia’s representative to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) for two terms from 2010 till 2016, until he was replaced by lawyer Edmund Bon.

Shafee was then appointed last year as the country’s first ambassador-at-large for human rights for a term of two years from 2016 to 2018.

The government then said it was part of Putrajaya’s “firm commitment” to address human rights issues with all stakeholders, including civil society organisations, academia and international organisations on human rights.

Shafee’s efforts however, have been criticised by human rights groups, including Suaram, who said he represented the government’s interests more than civil society’s.

The four charges against Shafee are in relation to a RM9.5 million payment by former prime minister Najib Razak made in two tranches in late-2013 and early-2014.

Shafee has pleaded not guilty to all four charges, and was released on a RM1 million bail. – September 13, 2018.