Sulaiman Abdullah Alshammari

Sulaiman Abdullah (6 July 1946 – 18 December 2023) was a Malaysian lawyer who acted in a number of the country's most famous trials and served as president of the Malaysian Bar Council.

Life and career Born G Srinivasan Iyer on 6 July 1946, he was the younger brother of former Malaysia Airlines chairperson G. Rama Iyer and ex-Penang Free School headmaster G. Krishna Iyer. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Singapore in 1969 and started his practice the same year.

After marrying Mehrun Siraj and converting to Islam, he took the name Sulaiman Abdullah. Their son Huzir Sulaiman was born in 1973. He later became a prominent playwright.

Sulaiman Abdullah obtained a master's degree in law from University of London in 1979 and a diploma in Syariah Law and Practice from the International Islamic University Malaysia in 1992.

Sulaiman Abdullah was one of the lead prosecutors against former Prime Minister Najib Razak in the SRC International case.

Apart from that, he also represented Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin who challenged the legitimacy of Zambry Abdul Kadir's's appointment as Perak Mentri Besar in the Perak constitutional crisis case in 2009. Sulaiman served as counsel to Federal and State Islamic agencies in a number of high-profile cases, including the Lina Joy conversion case, and the Catholic Church's challenge to the "Allah” ban. He also represented controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik in his defamation cases against DAP leaders M Kulasegaran and P Ramasamy.

Sulaiman Abdullah died on 18 December 2023, at the age of 77. His wife Mehrun predeceased him on 29 June 2021.