©New
Straits Times (Used by permission)
PUTRAJAYA: No criminal offence appears to have been
committed in a
video
recording of a telephone conversation between a well–known lawyer and senior
judge allegedly discussing appointments to the Bench, the attorney–general said.
Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, however, said he was "getting
further opinion on the matter and studying other information in the video clip".
Responding to the video released by Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser Datuk Seri
Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday, Gani said the lawyer was in a monologue over his
mobile phone and it was unclear who he was talking to.
"There is no clear reference that he was talking to a top judicial officer," he
said.
Anwar made public the video showing the lawyer purportedly saying he would lobby
for the judge's elevation. The video was made in 2002.
Anwar said the video was handed over recently by a source who wanted to remain
anonymous.
The clip shows the lawyer talking about how he had helped the judge's
appointment to top judicial postings through a prominent businessman and a
politician, both of whom were said to be close to the then prime minister.
The lawyer said he was also working to get Tan Sri Mokhtar Abdullah appointed
Chief Judge of Malaya and named a number of high–level judges in the video.
Mokhtar, a former attorney–general, was elevated to the Federal Court but went
into a coma after a fall in August 2002. He died in 2003.
The video is 14 minutes and 16 seconds long but was edited to eight minutes and
26 seconds to protect the identity of the source.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz
said the authorities would act on the video clip when an official report was
made.
"I have not been briefed or contacted by the judiciary or the attorney–general
on the matter. At the moment, I have nothing."
Nazri said the proper procedure would be for any of the parties in the video, or
those who may be affected by it, to make a police report.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has called for the judge to be
suspended for unethical conduct under Article 125 of the constitution.
He said in a statement that the law allowed the king to appoint a tribunal, upon
whose recommendation the judge could be removed from office.
The New Straits Times contacted some of those whose names were mentioned
in the video clip.
Former chief justice Tun Dzaiddin Abdullah declined comment.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who was deputy minister
in the Prime Minister's Department when the video was allegedly made in 2002 and
who was referred to a number of times by the lawyer, also refused to comment.