Bar Council to protest action against corrupt judges

(FMT) – The Malaysian Bar says it will hold a “peaceful protest” to voice dissatisfaction about judicial intimidation.

Bar Council president Karen Cheah said lawyers voted in favour of a motion at an extraordinary general meeting today to condemn an investigation by the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) into Court of Appeal judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

The investigation was made following a report about an unexplained sum of more than RM1 million in his bank account. MACC has said the investigation papers have been submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for further advice and action.

The Bar said constitutional procedures should be followed in the probe, contending that the Federal Constitution provides for complaints about alleged judicial misconduct to be handled in a manner that ensures continued public confidence in the judiciary.

Earlier this month, six former Bar presidents (Mah Weng Kwai, Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, Yeo Yang Poh, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Lim Chee Wee and Steven Thiru) urged the current office bearers to hold a “walk for justice” to protest against claims of “intimidation” of the judiciary.

During Ambiga’s tenure, she had led 2,000 members to walk from the Palace of Justice to the Prime Minister’s Office to urge the government of then prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into a judge-fixing scandal.

Cheah said a meeting would be held tomorrow to discuss the protest.

Cheah said representatives of the Advocates Association of Sarawak and the Sabah Law Society attended today’s Bar Council EGM as observers and would be issued invitations to take part in the protest.