©New
Straits Times (Used by permission)
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council expressed concern and shock that police reports
have been lodged against two magistrates for their refusal to extend
remand orders of accused persons.
The Bar Council, which represents the interests of 12,000 lawyers in the peninsular, is also concerned over a suggestion that one of the magistrates may have been transferred to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya as an administrative officer due to the report.
Its president, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, said these acts were an affront to the
independence and dignity of the judicial system.
She said it was also a direct interference with the administration of justice.
"More so, when there is a legal avenue available to the police to file for a
review of such orders," she said in a statement yesterday.
Ambiga said such action must cease immediately and those
responsible must be made accountable.
She said this in response to a commentary in the New Straits Times
yesterday that the police had other options against the decisions of the
magistrates instead of filing reports against the judicial officers.