PUTRAJAYA, Nov 13 - The government will leave it up to Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to decide if Datuk V.K. Lingam alleged role in fixing judicial appointments should be re-investigated, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
The deputy prime minister noted it was for the A-G to decide if they were valid reasons for the case to be reviewed when responding to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) operations review panel's (PPO) move to ask the A-G's permission to review the Lingam case,.
Bowing to public pressure and unhappiness over the government’s decision that “no further action” be taken over the judicial appointments scandal, panel chaiman Tan Sri Dr Hadenan Abdul Jalil confirmed that permission was being sought on grounds of public interest.
“Well it is up to the A-G to assess the request by the panel whether if there is any valid reasons to do, we leave it to them to decide,” Muhyiddin told reporters here.
The government has flip-flopped over its stand on the Lingam case especially when two ministers managed to contradict each on the status of the case.
Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had said, in a written reply to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, that no action would be taken against Lingam.
He said Attorney General Tan Sri Gani Patail had found “no case” against the senior lawyer.
However, just a week later, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein announced that the Lingam case was still under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
“The investigation in relation to V. K. Lingam’s video case is still under investigation by the MACC and the police are no longer handling the case,” Hishammuddin said in a written reply to Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong.
On Monday, Nazri again sparked an uproar in Parliament when he said “judiciary fixer” Lingam had been let off the hook “because he had broken no law”.
Nazri also suggested that Lingam breached no laws as he might “have just acted to fix the appointment of judges as if he was brokering the appointment of senior judges to impress people”.
Nazri argued that, from the legal perspective, Lingam could have “merely made a suggestion” as to who should be appointed to senior posts in the judiciary.
Lingam was implicated in a scandal involving senior judges and found by a royal commission to be the person recorded “fixing” the appointment of judges.
The royal commission found strong evidence against Lingam and in its report suggested that action be taken against him and others implicated in the infamous “correct, correct, correct” recording.
Other figures implicated include Eusoff, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and tycoon Vincent Tan, a close friend of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Photos also emerged of Eusoff and Lingam together on a holiday in New Zealand in the late 1990s.
Even though Eusoff claimed the meeting with Lingam in New Zealand was a coincidence, testimony by Lingam’s former secretary L.G. Jayanthi contradicted his claim.
Jayanthi claimed that she was instructed by her boss to make travel arrangements for him and his family together with Eusoff’s family to New Zealand.
MACC deputy commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamad has also said that the A-G will release a special statement soon on the controversial closure of the case even though the Home Minister had stated that Lingam was still under investigation by the commission
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