by Lim Kit Siang
Attorney–General Tan Sri Gani Patail is to be commended for conceding to public
demands for accountability and transparency to explain the reason for the
last–minute change of the prosecution team in the Mongolian Altantunya
Shaariibuu murder trial.
Gani said the DPP Salehuddin Saidin, who was leading the prosecution team
had been seen playing badminton with trial judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yasin and
the matter was only brought to his attention last Thursday.
Gani said realizing the sensitivity of the case, he decided to withdraw
Salehuddin from leading the prosecution team. Given the time constraint of only
three days for a new DPP to take over, he had no choice but to request for
adequate time to prepare the case.
Whether Gani’s explanation would be fully accepted is another matter, at least
he has given what can be regarded by some as adequate and acceptable explanation
for the extraordinary turn of events at the start of the high–profile murder
trial.
This is because there will be those who will ask why the judge Datuk Mohd Zaki
had not recused himself from the trial instead.
Questions will be asked as to why the initial judge to preside over the trial,
Datuk K.N. Segara, was taken off the case as the reason given, that he had more
party–heard cases, is weak and unconvincing, and whether Judge Segara should be
allowed to preside over the trial.
The incident has raised anew the subject of the proper conduct of judges and the
main players in the system of justice, and what has happened to the public
undertaking by Tun Ahmad Fairuz on his appointment as Chief Justice some four
years ago in 2003 to recast the Judges’ Code of Ethics to restore public
confidence in judicial independence, impartiality and integrity.
Malaysians are reminded of the stain in the history of Malaysian judiciary where
the author of the Judges’ Code of Ethics in 1994, the then Chief Justice Tun
Eusoff Chin, had himself violated and discredited the Code of Ethics by his own
judicial misconduct and impropriety, to the extent that he left the high
judicial office in disgrace.
There is also one question which is being asked by Malaysians about the
Altantunya murder trial – why Gani is not personally leading the prosecution in
the Mongolian murder trial when it is likely to be the most high–profile trial
under his tenure as Attorney–General?
Is Gani prepared to give a satisfactory explanation to this question?