Shafee, who arrived at the Sessions Court here at about 11.20am, told reporters that he was being victimised.

“I will give a full press statement later,” he added as he was escorted into the court.

Shafee is likely to be charged with four counts of money laundering in relation to the RM9.5 million payment received from former prime minister Najib Razak.

If convicted under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, Anti-Terrorism Financing Act and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, he could be jailed for up to 15 years and fined not less than five times the sum of the illegal money received.

This comes after legal officer Siti Rahayu Mohd Mumazaini from the Attorney-General’s Chambers revealed in an affidavit last week that two cheques were deposited into Shafee’s CIMB bank account on Sept 13, 2013 and Feb 17, 2014.

The first cheque was reportedly for RM4.3 million while the second was for RM5.2 million. Both cheques were issued from Najib’s AmIslamic Bank Bhd account.

Rahayu said the information was obtained when the MACC froze Shafee’s bank account while investigating the lawyer for money laundering offences.

She said Shafee filed an affidavit in the High Court last year claiming he had not received the money.

On Saturday, however, Shafee said the RM9.5 million payment from Najib was for his past services to Umno and other Barisan Nasional component parties.

Former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had filed a suit against Shafee last June, saying he was denied a fair trial following allegations by whistleblower site Sarawak Report that RM9.5 million was transferred to Shafee from Najib’s private account.

The PKR leader said the Court of Appeal’s decision on March 7, 2014 to convict him of sodomising Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan was made in an unconstitutional manner.

The appeals court’s decision was upheld by the Federal Court on Feb 10, 2015.