Federal Court cuts Shafee's Bar Council damages to RM120,000

A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Choo Kah Sing dismissed Shafee’s appeal to increase his compensation from the Bar Council, trimming the total to RM120,000. The judges—Justice Evrol Mariette Peters and Justice Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid—stressed that damages must be substantiated by evidence rather than speculation. Although the Bar Council’s actions were found improper, the court did not automatically label them as malicious.

Consequently, the RM200,000 award for reputational harm and hurt feelings was reduced to RM100,000, while the RM20,000 exemplary damages ordered by the High Court were left unchanged. The court also ordered each side to pay its own legal costs. The dispute originated from Shafee’s 2015 lectures referencing the Liwat II Anwar Ibrahim case, which led to Bar Council members Tommy Thomas and VC George seeking disciplinary action against him, a move later deemed beyond the Council’s authority.