Karpal offers to prosecute Lingam

(The Star) – Veteran lawyer Karpal Singh has answered a call by the Prime Minister’s Department and has volunteered to prosecute Datuk V.K. Lingam.

He urged the Attorney-General to authorise him to act for the Government over the issue involving a 2007 videotape showing senior lawyer Lingam apparently making deals over the appointment of judges.

On Tuesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said his office was looking for volunteers to prosecute the controversial lawyer.

“Find anyone who can provide me a section in law to charge Lingam and we will do it,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

“I will speak to the Attorney-General if someone is willing to prosecute him,” he added, proposing that one possibility was Karpal, who is also the DAP national chairman and Bukit Gelugor Member of Parliament.

Nazri noted that this would not be the first time the Government has allowed someone outside the Attorney-General’s Chambers to act for it, citing as an example lawyer Tan Hock Chuan who is handling the inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock.

Nazri was quoted last week as saying that Lingam had not broken the law for allegedly lobbying for the appointment of judges and that there was no provision in the law to say that those caught doing so had committed an illegal act.

The Government set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate Lingam and others implicated in the video, including former Chief Justice Tun Eusoff Chin, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan.

The Royal Commission found that wrongdoings had been committed and listed the laws that were breached, recommending further action against the individuals involved.