KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Utusan Malaysia called today for Malaysian Bar president Christopher Leong to be cited for contempt of court over his remarks critical of the prosecution of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy.
Awang Selamat, the editorial voice of the Umno-linked daily, said in the broadsheet’s Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia that failure to cite Leong for contempt would send the wrong signal to Malaysians and allow the Bar Council to enjoy immunity in “insulting” judges.
“Awang has long seen the legal body as an opposition wing,” said Awang Selamat.
“They should be strongly upholding and respecting the law. That principle should be the core, not prostituted for political interests,” the paper added.
A group of about 100 lawyers gave Leong yesterday 14 days to issue an apology and to retract his statement on the verdict in Anwar’s case, saying they would push for his resignation should he refuse.
The lawyers accused Leong of impugning the judiciary by highlighting “glaring anomalies” in the prosecution of the federal opposition leader, which he had said fuelled the perception that Anwar’s case was political persecution rather than a criminal prosecution.
Leong said in response that members of the Bar who took issue with his position were free to register their disapproval during the annual general meeting next month.
The public prosecutor under fiat on Anwar’s case, Tan Sri Muhd Shafee Abdullah, has branded the Bar Council a “political animal” that must be neutralised, also in response to Leong’s February 11 statement.
The Federal Court upheld on February 10 the Court of Appeal’s 2014 ruling that had reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and sentenced the Permatang Pauh lawmaker to five years’ jail.
Anwar will be disqualified as MP and federal opposition leader on Tuesday unless he files a petition seeking a royal pardon.
