Monday April 4, 2016
05:38 PM GMT+8
(From left) Karen Cheah, R. Shanmugam, Francis Pereira and Charles Hector arrive at Bukit Aman to give their statements in Kuala Lumpur March 31, 2016. ― file picture
KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The sedition
investigation on lawyers over a Malaysian Bar motion calling for the
Attorney-General’s resignation violates the rule of law as they were
merely exercising their statutory rights, the Advocates Association of
Sarawak said today.
The association’s central committee president Leonard D. Shim pointed
out that Malaysian Bar secretary Karen Cheah Yee Lynn and the three
lawyers who had moved the motion — R. Shanmugam, Francis Pereira,
Charles Hector — were exercising their statutory rights and duties under
Section 64(6) of the Legal Profession Act 1976 to propose “any motion”
during the peninsula legal body’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March
19.
“Section 42(1) of the LPA provides that the Malaysian Bar has a
statutory duty to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own
interests or that of its members, uninfluenced by fear or favour,” Shim
said in a statement.
“The questioning by the police of the lawyers who moved the motion
relating to 1MDB and the Secretary of the Malaysian Bar for carrying out
her statutory duties is regrettable and inconsistent with the
principles of the Rule of Law.
“The Advocates Association of Sarawak again urges the Government to
respect the statutory rights of the office-bearers and members of the
Malaysian Bar, and to honour the Prime Minister’s own 2012 promise of
repealing the Sedition Act,” he added, referring to Prime Minister Datuk
Seri Najib Razak.
Police recorded last Thursday statements from Cheah, Charles, Shanmugam
and Pereira over the motion, which urged Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali to
quit as AG, that was adopted at the Malaysian Bar’s AGM with over 700
votes.
The contentious motion called on Apandi to resign over his decisions in
cases involving state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB),
former 1MDB unit SRC International, and the transfer of RM2.6 billion
into the prime minister’s personal accounts, after the AG announced that
Najib did not commit any criminal offence in the SRC International and
RM2.6 billion cases.
- Malay Mail, 4/4/2016
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