Bar Council condemns MACC for questioning Sivakumar’s lawyer

The Malaysian Bar Council hit out strongly against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for questioning one of the lawyers on the legal team representing Perak Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar this afternoon.

Ipoh-based lawyer, Augustine Anthony, claimed MACC officers asked him about his dealings with Sivakumar, whom they are investigating for allegations of misconduct.

"We are very concerned with these actions because we view these actions as acts of intimidation of a lawyer who was exercising his professional duty to his client," Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan told The Malaysian Insider.

"Recently, there appears to be a trend by the authorities to question lawyers who are acting for certain clients in relation to the discharge of their duties," she added, naming prominent lawyers R. Sivarasa, N. Surendran, M. Puravalen and Americk Sidhu who had represented private eye P. Balasubramaniam, a key witness in the murder trial of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, before he went missing.

Ambiga noted such interrogations had spiked since the 12th General Elections last March, which resulted in an upset to the Barisan Nasional's tight grip on power in several key states.

"This cannot be tolerated. The lawyer-client privilege is sacrosanct," she observed.