Former Sodomy II cop wins court bid to practise law, with conditions

Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — A former policeman who led the investigations in Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s second sodomy case has finally got his dream of becoming a practising lawyer, following a High Court ruling allowing his admission to the Bar.

The Ipoh High Court rejected the Bar Council's objection to Jude Pereira's petition, but said the ex-policeman must undergo an eight-hour human rights training stint with the legal profession's regulator before he can be admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya, The Star daily reported.

The daily quoted judge Lee Swee Seng saying that the training will be a period of “effective rehabilitation” for Pereira.

On January 15, this year, High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof allowed the Bar Council’s notice of objection and notice of caveat against Pereira’s admission to practise law as he was found “not to be a credible witness” during a human rights case in May 2013, based on the Human Rights Commission inquiry, then chaired by Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

In his ruling yesterday, Justice Lee said Pereira’s actions at the Brickfields district police station here during a candlelight vigil on May 7 had led to a severe constitutional breach on the rights of the detainees and their five lawyers.

But the judge added that the issue has since been resolved following the close of a civil suit filed by those arrested against the government; each of the five lawyers was awarded RM 60,000 in aggravated and exemplary damages for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

On September 3, Bernama reported that Pereira succeeded in his appeal to set aside the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision which prevented his admission as an advocate and solicitor.

A Court of Appeal three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Linton Albert unanimously allowed the appeal and held that the High Court judge had made her ruling based on a notice of objection and notice of caveat against Pereira’s  admission which was filed by the Bar Council and not on his petition.

Albert said that the court found that Pereira had not yet filed his petition under Section 15 (1) of the Legal Profession Act 1976 for enrolment and admission as advocate and solicitor and therefore, the High Court had not sat down to hear his petition.

He then fixed for mention of the case on September 18 in the High Court.