Lawyer P Uthayakumar who was recently discharged of verbal criminal intimidation o­n a police officer, is disappointed that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail would not accept the decision.

He told malaysiakini that the AG should be magnanimous and accept the ruling made by Shah Alam High Court judge Abdul Halim Suriyadi o­n May 3.

On May 12, the AG's chambers filed a notice at the Shah Alam High Court to appeal against the decision.

Judge's advice

"The AG should have considered the judge's advice for both parties to put the whole episode behind them and forge forward. The decision was very clear and conciliatory in that he urged all parties to put their heads together and bring an end to the episode. After all I was just doing my duty as a counsel," he said.

If the AG had done that and, together with the withdrawal of his other charge (of contempt of court) at the Sepang magistrate's court today, Uthayakumar said both parties could have really put the episode behind them.

"With both charges out of the way, both parties would be able to concentrate fully o­n the real issue at hand which is the inquest of S Tharma Rajan and find out if there was any criminality involved, thus upholding justice to his family," he said.

Today magistrate Noridah Adam acquitted Uthayakumar from the contempt charge which he was said to have committed at the Sepang magistrate's court o­n Sept 3 last year. The acquittal came after the prosecution withdrew the charge.

Uthayakumar was charged in January under section 228 of the Penal Code for contempt of court and under section 506 for criminal intimidation of chief inspector G Ponniah.

This was in relation to an inquest by the Sepang magistrate's court o­n Sept 3 last year into the death Tharma Rajan in police custody.

Uthayakumar, while representing the family of the youth at the hearing, had allegedly said, "You watch out, I will fix you, we will fix you", to Ponniah who testified at the inquest.

Ponniah later lodged a police report against the lawyer.

Call for goodwill

In March, Uthayakumar filed an application at the Shah Alam High Court to strike out the two charges, after his attempt to do so before Sepang magistrate Norazmi Mohd Narawi failed.

On May 3, Justice Suriyadi granted the lawyer a discharge from the case.

In his 36-page judgment, he called for goodwill to prevail among the dissenting parties.

"Due to the chequered history of this case and the wide reporting of the matter; the police department, the legal fraternity and the court are uncomfortably under intense scrutiny of the public."

"Perhaps this whole episode could be put to rest permanently if all parties put their heads together and goodwill prevails," he said.