KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Attorney General (AG) Tommy Thomas rejected allegations that he did not build an adequate case to support Malaysia’s ratification of the Rome Statute.
According to Utusan Malaysia, he said he will dispel such claims during a forum on the topic tomorrow.
“When it’s raining, they put the blame on me. When there is no rain, they blame on me too,” he was quoted as saying.
A lawyer named Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz previously alleged that the reversal was due to the weakness of the government’s presentation rather than four academics who allegedly counselled the Malay Rulers against the move.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced earlier this month that Malaysia was reversing its previously stated intention to ratify the Rome Statute due to political deception that confused the public.
Student activists later leaked the four academics’ briefing to the Conference of Rulers, in which they warned that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he is the supreme commander of the country’s armed forces.
The paper was allegedly prepared by Universiti Teknologi Mara’s deputy vice-chancellor and dean of Faculty of Law Prof Datuk Rahmat Mohamad, International Islamic University of Malaysia’s law lecturer Assoc Prof Shamrahayu Ab Aziz, and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s law lecturers Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi.
