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KUALA LUMPUR: The person or persons who took the controversial video of a prominent lawyer allegedly brokering the appointment of judges will be protected, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz said.

“We protect whistleblowers from being made known to the public, not from the authorities. This should not be misconstrued,” said Nazri in an interview.

Enforcement sources confirmed that the person enjoyed protection under the Anti Corruption Act.

They said the Act guaranteed that the identity of those who provide information of offences under the Act could not be revealed. 

Section 53 (1) of the Act reads: The identity of the person from whom such information is received shall be a secret between the officer who made the complaint and the person who gave the information, and everything contained in such information, the identity of the person who gave the information and all other circumstances relating to the information, including the place where it was given, shall not be disclosed or be ordered or required to be disclosed in any civil, criminal or other proceedings in any court, tribunal or other authority.

While Section 53 (2), which expands on the protection reads: That if any book, paper or other document or any visual or sound recording, or other matter or material which is given in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil, criminal or other proceedings in court, tribunal or other authority as are referred to in subsection (1) contains any entry or other matter in which any person who gave the information is named or described or shown or which might lead to his discovery the court before which the proceedings are held shall cause all such parts thereof or passage therein to be concealed from view or to be obliterated or otherwise removed so far as is necessary to protect such person from discovery.

However, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who made public the video, dismissed the assurances and said the source of the recording would only come forward if there was a Royal Commission of Inquiry set up instead of the independent panel.

He told a press conference after being interviewed by the ACA that the whistleblowers feared for their lives as those implicated in the video include a powerful judge, top corporate figure and an influential politician.

Anwar said while ACA had said it was willing to protect the identity of the source, but it could not guarantee the personal safety of these whistleblowers because that is not within its ambit of power.

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