KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — The sedition investigation on a motion tabled at the Malaysian Bar’s annual general meeting (AGM), which calls for the Attorney-General’s resignation, is an interference with the duties and rights of the Bar Council and lawyers, Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru said today.
Steven said the police asking to record statements from the three lawyers who had proposed the motion — Charles Hector Fernandez, Francis Pereira and R. Shanmugam — as well as from Malaysian Bar secretary Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, was unacceptable.
“The action taken by PDRM is unacceptable,” he said in a statement, using the Malay acronym for the Royal Malaysian Police.
“It is an interference with the Bar Council’s statutory obligation to convene and conduct the Malaysian Bar’s Annual General Meeting, and the statutory entitlement of Members of the Malaysian Bar to move motions for the consideration of the Malaysian Bar, consistent with the Malaysian Bar’s objects and powers under the Legal Profession Act 1976.
“The Malaysian Bar urges PDRM to respect the statutory duties of the Bar Council and the statutory rights of Members of the Malaysian Bar,” he added.
The police have called in for questioning on Thursday the three lawyers who had proposed the motion urging Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali to resign as Attorney-General over his handling of the 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.
The motion was approved at the Malaysian Bar AGM on March 19, with over 700 members of the peninsula legal body voting in favour.
Apandi told a press conference on January 26 that he found that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not commit any criminal offence in the cases of SRC International and the RM2.6 billion transfer, which he said was a donation from the Saudi royalty.
