Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim admitted receiving poison-pen letters alleging corrupt practices among judges, according to a Bernama report.

He however said these complaints were without credible evidence and therefore warrant no further action.

He said although the complaints are forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Agency, the judiciary conducts its own internal investigation to get to the truth of the allegations.

"It is not fair to act on (poison-pen letters) where there is no credible evidence. It's just an allegation of corruption.

"We do send the complaints to the ACA (Anti-Corruption Agency) and also do our own investigation but there is no credible evidence," he told reporters after launching a seminar on" Combating Corruption in the Criminal Justice System" by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Malaysia.

In conducting investigations, Ahmad Fairuz said he has to be very careful as he is aware that the complaints may have came from parties who had received unfavourable judgments.

Complaints from losers

Citing an experience in investigating a complaint against a judge who was later found to be innocent, he said: "The allegations were untrue. So the only thing is that the losers, who felt frustrated, simply put in anything against the judge. So, it is unfair for any authority to rely on such (poison-pen) letters," he said.

When asked how many complaints he had received, Ahmad Fairuz said he had got only a few.

"I have received only a few complaints against judges. Normally, a few (judges) can malign the whole judiciary, so I'm hoping that the ACA will get very reliable evidence on these judges," said the Chief Justice who had started receiving such letters since his appointment in March 2003.

Earlier, in his speech, Ahmad Fairuz said not much could be done on complaints made by poison pen writers who hid behind the covers of pseudo names which he described as "cowards".

He said that it would be a mockery of justice if people of a position of influence to accept such letters as representing the truth.

In 1996, Malaysians were shocked by the circulation of a 33-page poison pen letter which contained 112 allegations against 12 judges - 21 allegations of abuse of power, 39 of corruption, and 52 of misconduct, immorality, and personal attacks.

Following public furore and pressure from the Bar Council, the police had investigated into its authorship and content.

It was later revealed by the then Attorney-General the late Mohtar Abdullah that a judge had authored the letter and that there was no grounds for prosecution as the allegations made had been proven baseless.

He however said that the judge would not be prosecuted.