Archive for category Judiciary
‘Evidence fabricated in Anwar’s corruption trial’
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, Judiciary, Mahathir, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Malaysiakini
Sep 12, 11
Anwar Ibrahim’s 1999 conviction for abuse of power was wrong as the prosecution had concocted evidence and cheated through the actions of then investigating officer Musa Hassan and then lead prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail.
This was revealed in another open letter, sent to Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar today, by former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim.
Mat Zain states that Musa and Gani had done this for their joint benefit. Both had risen in ranks, with Musa becoming the police chief and Gani, the attorney-general. Musa retired recently.
“It is not wrong to say the jail term Anwar faced is an injustice to him as a result of both their (Musa’s and Gani’s) actions. I am basing this argument on documentary evidence and statements that I have and are within my knowledge,” he said in the letter.
“I am also saying this because there are important statements made by (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Chapter 53 of his memoirs ‘Doctor in the House’ on the black eye incident, and the actions by the public prosecutor are different from what I have in the official case files of 1998.
“I believe that Mahathir was given a wrong briefing and he had been manipulated.” Read the rest of this entry »
Top court says Lingam video RCI findings ‘cannot be reviewed’
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 13, 2011
PUTRAJAYA, Sept 13 — The Federal Court ruled today that the findings of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the controversial V.K. Lingam video clip cannot be reviewed as the commissioners merely made findings and it was not a decision.
Lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam wanted the Court of Appeal to review the RCI’s findings that he had committed criminal misbehaviour which, he said, was a grave attack on his reputation, and that he had been adversely affected.
The senior lawyer argued that although he had not been prosecuted, his reputation had been gravely tarnished and injured, and that it was his fundamental right under the Federal Constitution to safeguard his reputation.
Justice Raus Sharif ruled that Lingam and two former chief justices were not adversely affected by the findings of the commission. Read the rest of this entry »
Constitutional question: Judges let natives down
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Judiciary, Sarawak on Saturday, 10 September 2011
by Hafiz Yatim
Malaysiakini
Sep 9, 11
A law professor said Chief Justice Zaki Azmi and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum, could have abdicated their oath of office by their refusal to interpret the question of law posed to them.
The question posed before the court was “whether section 5(3) and (4) of the Sarawak Land Code relating to the extinguishment of native customary rights are ultra vires Article 5 (Right to life) and Article 13 (right to property) of the Federal Constitution.”
Islamic International University professor Abdul Aziz Bari said by refusing to deal with the constitutionality issue, the Federal court has abdicated its duty.
“Under the Federal Constitution, the Federal Court which is the highest court of the land is essentially the constitutional court of the country; the main tribunal whose major duty is to take care of the constitution,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Judicial independence and justice
Lim Sue Goan
The Malaysian Insider
September 09, 2011
SEPT 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent visit to the Palace of Justice has triggered a dispute as some claimed that the visit could jeopardise the independence of the judiciary. However, I am more interested in the remarks made by retiring Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi.
He said that the government had allocated RM130 million to upgrade court facilities and it was normal for the prime minister to see how the money was spent. Also, the more people the more transparent it was and there was nothing to be kept in the dark. It would not affect judges’ independent judgment.
The judiciary needs money to operate and the bill is paid by the government. Then how could we be sure that the judiciary would not lose its independence for government funding?
Judiciary independence is a universal value. According to the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary adopted by the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders held in Milan from August 26 to September 6, 1985, “it is the duty of each Member State to provide adequate resources to enable the judiciary to properly perform its functions”.
Most countries and regions such as the US, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan separated the expenses of the judiciary and included it in the central budget. Many countries also have a court expense budget which is planned by a court expense budget committee formed by courts or judges. There are also judges who participate in a court expense budget team and the Finance Ministry has no right to delete or seize a court expense budget and funding. Read the rest of this entry »
Revised law rewards judiciary’s top three, works other judges longer
By Debra Chong
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 29, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Unlike his predecessors, Tun Zaki Azmi will retire on a full pension when he clocks out for the last time from the Palace of Justice on September 12 despite serving less than three years as Chief Justice, thanks to a recent revision of a remuneration law for the country’s judges.
It used to be a minimum of 15 years for judges from the High Court upwards to get their full pensions but few in the courts appear aware of the revisions to the Judges’ Remuneration Act (JRA) 1971, passed in Parliament two months ago, that gave senior judges a shorter time to get pensions while junior judges now have to spend 18 years to get their full pension.
“The whole thing is purposely catered to Zaki,” DAP federal lawmaker Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider when contacted. Read the rest of this entry »
Who killed Teoh Beng Hock?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Judiciary, Teoh Beng Hock on Monday, 8 August 2011
The burden of proving that Teoh’s death was an accident lies on those who had held him at the MACC
By N H Chan
Recently (see my article “If you put the cart before the horse” or “Cart and Horse” depending on where you have read it), I wrote about the unfounded conclusion of a befuddled Royal Commission of Inquiry that Teoh Beng Hock was driven to suicide while he was in the custody of the MACC.
One still wonders how such a conclusion could ever have been reached by the RCI without any evidence to support it whatsoever! Such evidence requires the opinion of an expert – which is a relevant fact under section 45 of the Evidence Act – to say that Teoh was driven to suicide as a direct consequence of the third degree method of interrogation inflicted on him by the police while he was in the custody of the MACC. It is because the finding of the RCI that Teoh was driven to suicide was unsupported by any evidence that we all realized how silly had been those judges who sat on the Royal commission. Those three judges have since become the laughing stock of the nation! Read the rest of this entry »
RCI + inquest = ‘big, big mess’
Posted by Kit in Court, Judiciary, Teoh Beng Hock on Thursday, 28 July 2011
By Teoh El Sen | July 28, 2011
Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, which released its findings in a report last Thursday, has created a “big legal mess” by generating more questions than answers, said prominent human rights lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
Malik, who represented the Selangor government during the inquest and RCI, said rather than serving its original function to bring a closure to the issue, there are now different conclusions by the RCI and inquest.
“What has resulted is a big, big, mess. We have now a coroner’s decision and a RCI’s, which are saying different things. In law, the coroner’s findings is the determinative one,” the National Human Rights Society president told FMT.
Read the rest of this entry »
Raja Aziz – A legal mandarin’s sad last days
By Terence Netto
Jul 14, 11 | MalaysiaKini
Raja Aziz Addruse, for all his ultimate eminence as a lawyer, must have felt himself a marginal man, especially in the last decades before his death on Tuesday from lymphatic cancer at the age of 75.
Nothing exemplified this peripheral stature than the refusal of the Federal Court to grant him consideration when questions on the constitutional monarchy were referred to it in a dispute on the royal succession in Kelantan last year that pitted the former sultan against his successor, the regent.
The former sultan had retained an ailing Raja Aziz as counsel when he challenged the constitutionality of the succession. Read the rest of this entry »
Mat Zain wants Altantuya accused retried
By Debra Chong
July 12, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim urged today Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to step in and relook the Attorney-General’s (A-G) prosecution of two policemen now on death row for the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The retired cop accused the A-G of mishandling the case, which reflects a miscarriage of justice as the motive for murder was never found. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib GTP in past two years a depressing failure
I posed a supplementary query in Parliament to Question No. 5 to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who had boasted about the great success and achievements of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Government Transformation Programme to date.
Puncturing his balloon, I pointed out that the purpose of Najib’s GTP is to restore national and international confidence in the efficiency, independence, integrity and professionalism of key national institutions but the reality in the past two years had been the very opposite – with even greater plunge of public and international confidence in the efficiency, independence, integrity and professionalism of key national institutions like the police, judiciary, elections commission and the anti-corruption commission, the MACC.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mat Zain: Bala’s SD might save cops on death row
Posted by Kit in Court, Judiciary, Law & Order, Police on Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Malaysiakini
Jun 27, 11
Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim has urged Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar to intervene in the decision of the Attorney-General’s (AG’s) Chambers not to charge private investigator P Balasubramaniam with falsifying a statutory declarations (SDs).
In an open letter to Ismail, Mat Zain said the contents of Balasubramaniam’s statutory declarations, if tested in court, may influence the outcome of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.
Two young police personnel, Azilah Hadri, 33, and Sirul Azha Umar, 36, were both sentenced to death for Altantuya’s murder.
However, political and defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted of abetment without his defence being called. Prosecutors did not appeal the decision.
“If the judge had mistakenly freed Abdul Razak, that is inconsequential. Maybe that is his luck. But we cannot allow the judge to mistakenly sentence Azilah and Sirul to death. Read the rest of this entry »
Something rotten at the Duta courts
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, Judiciary on Sunday, 26 June 2011
by Hafiz Yatim
Malaysiakini
Jun 25, 11
Shakespeare wrote in the play ‘Hamlet’ that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Court of Appeal judge NH Chan had also made similar remarks when he wrote the Ayer Molek Rubber Co Bhd vs Insas Bhd judgment in 1995, where he described the case he was presiding over as being about an injustice perpetrated by a court of law.
Can yesterday’s conviction of the infamous ‘Datuk T’ trio be said a travesty of justice deserving the local version that goes “something is rotten in Duta courts” resulting in possibly another charge looming over Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim? Read the rest of this entry »
Karpal: Public porn screening in court ‘a first’
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Court, Judiciary on Saturday, 25 June 2011
Malaysiakini
Jun 25, 11
Karpal Singh slammed the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate Court’s handling of the Datuk T proceedings yesterday for showing the sex video to the public and for allowing Anwar to be implicated in his absence.
“This is the first time in legal history of the country that a pornographic video clip produced as an exhibit in court has been played on two big screens, one facing them magistrate and the other the public gallery,” said the Bukit Gelugor MP and veteran lawyer in a statement today.
Karpal said in such situations the public gallery would always be cleared.
While he agreed that as a fundamental element of the charge against the Datuk T trio, the screening had to be done in the presence of the magistrate and relevant parties, and this should not include the public. Read the rest of this entry »
Mat Zain wants PM to call for tribunal against AG
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Judiciary on Friday, 10 June 2011
By Hafiz Yatim
Jun 10, 11 | MalaysiaKini
Former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim slammed the operations review panel of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission today for clearing attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail of any wrongdoing in the haj trip he took with an allegedly shady character named Shahidan Shafie.
Mat Zain has also called for the setting-up of a tribunal to properly put the attorney-general on trial over the issue.
In a hard-hitting open letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak dated today, Mat Zain said the move to clear Gani (right) was expected, but the people were fed-up with the MACC being seen to be lying just to save the attorney general from being prosecuted.
This, he said, would cause the people to lose confidence in the MACC, resulting in what good the agency was doing being seen as a sandiwara (show). Read the rest of this entry »
BN must respect next GE result
by John Inbaraj
The Malaysian Insider
May 21, 2011
MAY 21 — Great Men talk of Ideas, Average Men talk of Things, and Small Men talk of other Men. If I choose to be kind, I can best rate the Malaysian government as average.
In the days of old, our leaders were visionaries, people who talked of great plans and ideas for the country. They had quality — the likes of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn.
Whether or not their visions and policies achieved their desired goals, they were genuine Malaysians with a heart for the nation. There were others on the sidelines who stood strong to ideals and contributed unselfishly to nation building.
However, the prime minister after that, the great Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, began the systematic dismantling of the principles of democracy and the downward slide of an entire nation. He is widely seen as the man who almost single-handedly destroyed the basic instruments of parliamentary democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Sodomy II: Evidence, testimony and Anwar’s defence
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary on Tuesday, 17 May 2011
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
May 17, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — In the course of the Sodomy II trial, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defence team had pointed out a vast array of “inconsistencies” but trial judge Datuk Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah has concluded the opposition leader has a case to answer.
This ranged from the credibility of the star witness and accuser Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan to the methods in which DNA samples were illegally obtained from Anwar during his overnight lockup detention in the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.
“It does not come as a surprise but what is shocking is that he (Mohd Zabidin) has prejudged the case, and extended it beyond prima facie.
“This makes the position of the defence very precarious,” Anwar said yesterday.
The following are some of the highlights of the case where the prosecution and defence saw things differently. Read the rest of this entry »
Returning to democratic foundations should be the top priority
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Corruption, Judiciary, Najib Razak, nation building, Parliament, Politics on Monday, 17 January 2011
Breaking Views
by Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
The Malaysian Insider
January 17, 2011
January 17, 2011JAN 17 — Malaysia is considered by the present leaders as being a democratic country. It goes to the polls every five years or whenever the ruling coalition feels the time is right. It allows its citizens to practise whatever religion they choose, with some major exceptions. It allows the media, electronic and print to exist, with again very major restrictions. But, of course, the rationale behind all these restrictions is to maintain peace and order. This is the common cliché used to justify the existence of all the preventive and restrictive laws. Of course, the real reasons are to maintain power.
Looking back on how Malaya then was formed, there was every reason to believe that our model of democracy would be a shining example to all the newly independent countries that were once colonies of Britain. Malaya followed the Westminster model. Malaya had all the trappings that would make all other countries envious of it.
It had a bicameral legislature just like Britain. Instead of the House of Lords, it created a nominated House known as the Senate. Members of Parliament were to be elected through a general election. It separated the functions of the Executive and that of Parliament. Each had a definite power of its own. The Judiciary was independent of the Executive. The separation of power was put in place to allow democracy to flourish. The media was to act as the fourth estate.
To top it all, Malaya created a unique constitutional monarchy to be rotated every five years by the nine Sultans in the country.
And the civil service was to remain neutral.
It was beautifully conceived by the founding fathers. The country was to be secular in nature although Islam was made the official religion with all other religions allowed to be practised. There was, in other words, religious freedom. Read the rest of this entry »
New information on Anwar “black-eye” assault in 1998 surfacing in the public domain
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Judiciary, Police on Tuesday, 23 November 2010
New information on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “black-eye” assault in 1998 surfacing in the public domain has fortified the case of Datuk Zain Ibrahim Ismail, the police officer who headed the investigations into the case, for a proper closure of the 12-year-old police stain to restore police image and credibility.
This new information in the public domain was made by Mat Zain himself in his 19-page Open Letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Ismail bin Haji Omar, yesterday entitled: “Lagi Mengenai Insiden Mata-Lebam”.
On 9th November, 2010, when moving a RM10 salary-cut motion for the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail during the 2011 Budget debate in the committee stage of the Prime Minister’s Department, I had referred Mat Zain’s allegations accusing Gani Patail of fabricating evidence in the Anwar Ibrahim “black eye” investigation in 1998, which had not been unrebutted.
Although the RM10 salary-cut motion was defeated in the House, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had promised Parliament he would bring the ;public interest issues which I had brought up to the Cabinet.
In his Open Letter to the IGP yesterday, Mat Zain has called for a proper closure of Anwar’s “black eye” police assault, volunteering information strengthening his call for a “full and final’ closure which could restore police image and credibility in public esteem – as there was no need for any Royal Commission of Inquiry to ferret out the facts for the simple reason that the police itself was completely competent and capable of getting to the bottom of the incident. Read the rest of this entry »
NEM stillborn?
Malaysia’s Development Strategy Revisited (4)
by Dr. Mohamed Ariff*
New Economic Model Up Against Formidable Challenges
The structural change agenda presents formidable challenges. The kinds of skills that the new paradigm demands cannot be provided by Malaysia’s archaic education system, which needs a complete overhaul. At the same time, the country is suffering from a serious brain drain caused by both push and pull factors. The importance of a truly independent judiciary cannot be exaggerated: anecdotal evidence suggests that Malaysia’s tarnished judiciary and gutter politics are among the push factors. Seen in these terms, the brain drain is largely a manifestation of frustration that has led some people to vote with their feet.
All this calls for bold structural changes, including institutional reforms encompassing everything from education to the judiciary, backed by governance reforms to strengthen fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability. Nothing short of a holistic approach will set the Malaysian economy far enough or fast enough on a true development path. The politics of policy making, however, may hobble the reform process. Read the rest of this entry »
Syariah: ‘The law of the land’
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Court, Islam, Judiciary on Saturday, 25 September 2010
Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Sept 21, 2010
These days it’s not easy for a person of good sense to avoid being accused of sedition.
Especially if you have a basic grasp of modern political history and the nation’s constitutional foundations.
Voicing well-known facts and trite legal principles can get you into real trouble.
You question Ketuanan Malayu, for example, and you are told by those of a “Perkasa-ish” inclination, or lectured by Dr. Ridhuan Tee Abdullah in Utusan, that Malay political dominance is an agreed and foundational national principle. That it is inscribed in the Constitution.
What is in the Constitution? Here the champions of Ketuanan Melayu invoke Article 153.
That is the peg on which they hang the claim that enduring Malay ascendancy, even absolute political domination, is constitutionally enshrined. That it is an integral part of the “social contract” that made the nation and its Constitution possible.
But Article 153 is a small and dubious peg for such a big, even extravagant, claim. It merely provides for, or allows the government in its good judgement to institute, certain defined kinds of preferential treatment for Malays in certain identified and circumscribed areas.
It does not provide for, enshrine or constitutionally entrench Malay ethnic supremacy, enduring political domination.
But if you say this, you are likely to be challenged, and hit with a volley of police reports accusing you of sedition.
Of a triple sedition: against legitimate Malay political entitlement, as enshrined in Article 153; against the rulers who are the constitutionally-designated protectors of the Malay stake in the country; and hence also against the Constitution itself and the nation whose sovereignty it embodies. Read the rest of this entry »
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