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Published: Monday October 26, 2009 MYT 3:02:00 PM

Parliament: Witness available for Lingam case


KUALA LUMPUR: A witness would be introduced to the House to keep the Datuk V.K. Lingam case open, said R. Sivarasa (PKR-Subang).

The witness, believed to be a woman, would be brought to the House to dispute the then Anti-Corruption Agency’s (ACA, now the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or MACC) claim that it could not locate the key witness to Lingam’s holiday trip to New Zealand with former Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Tun Eusoff Chin.

“We propose to bring the witness to Parliament to show to the MACC that there is such a witness and we are in contact with the witness,” he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby Monday.

Sivarasa said the MACC’s excuse was “totally not acceptable” and showed its “unwilling attitude and inaction” in locating the witness.

When pressed for details about the witness and when she (or he) would appear in Parliament, Sivarasa said these details could not be revealed at the moment.

“We just spoke to the witness and the witness is willing to come forward. She is not in Kuala Lumpur but is willing to travel down,” said Loh Gwo-Burne (PKR-Kelana Jaya) who was also at the press conference.

Earlier, Sivarasa quoted from the Royal Commission of Inquiry reports saying that “a compelling inference can reasonably and conceivably be drawn that Datuk V.K. Lingam was actively involved in the appointment of Tun Ahmad Fairuz as Court of Appeal president, with the possible aim of his further appointment to the post of Federal Court Chief Justice.”

“We think that it is a scandal of the highest order to close such a high-profile case that rocked the country for several years.

“The Najib (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) administration has given the reason that no evidence was found to prove abuse of power in judicial appointments, but the Royal Commission in its report has stated otherwise,” he said.

The Attorney-General (A-G) has closed the case which implied the brokering of judges in a phone conversation featured in a video clip.

Last week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said in a written reply to Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) that investigations showed no criminal offence had been committed in the appointment of judges.

After ACA officers investigated those involved in the video clip, it was concluded that there was no abuse of power, he claimed.

Nazri said that the case was later classified by the A-G as “no further action” as there were no suspects who could confirm the handling of documents in the appointment of High Court judges.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry was conducted in the Lingam video case which showed the prominent lawyer purportedly involved in brokering a deal that manipulated the appointment of judges.

The video implicated five people, including Lingam, former chief justices Tun Eusoff Chin and Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan and the then Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who was in charge of legal affairs.

Related Stories:
Case against Lingam closed
Parliament: Karpal says Lingam case should not be closed

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