KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): The High Court has granted Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah temporary access to his passport as the senior lawyer will be travelling to Italy for family obligations.

Shafee's counsel Wee Yeong Kang confirmed this with theedgemarkets.com when contacted.

He has requested for the temporary release of his passport for about a month from July 8 until Aug 11. 

According to his application filed on June 24 sighted by theedgemarkets.com, the senior lawyer will be in Italy to help one of his daughters with her school transfer while visiting his eldest daughter who is in a university there.

Upon his return, he would also need time to renew his passport. Hence, the defence had requested access to the passport for a longer period of time.

Wee said that High Court Judge Datuk Muhammad Jamil Hussin allowed the application after he was satisfied with the grounds in the affidavit.  

Furthermore, Deputy Public Prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz did not object to the application.

According to his application, Shafee stated that he will return the passport to the court by Aug 12.

Shafee had to surrender his passport to the court as part of his bail terms in his ongoing criminal trial over alleged money laundering and making false statements to the Inland Revenue Board.

On Oct 25 last year, Justice Jamil granted a similar application for the lawyer to fly to New York to accompany his son who was pursuing his higher education there.

Shafee has been on trial since Sept 13, 2018 for two charges of receiving money derived from illegal activities amounting to RM9.5 million through two cheques of RM4.3 million on Sept 5, 2013 and RM5.2 million on Feb 14, 2014 respectively, issued by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, which were allegedly deposited into the lawyer's CIMB Bank Bhd account.

He is also facing two charges of engaging in transactions resulting from illegal activities, namely submitting incorrect tax returns and in violation of Paragraph 113(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act 1967 for the financial years ended Dec 31, 2013 and 2014.

The trial will resume on Sept 15.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/shafee-allowed-temporary-access-his-passport-again