Lawyer Americk Sidhu said he has no choice but to reserve the right to bill private investigator P Balasubramaniam's widow, A Santamil Selvi, for his legal services.

This is in the wake of Selvi's press conference on Saturday, where she allegedly accused Americk, Kapar MP G Manivannan, and Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah of promising to provide her with living expenses on condition of agreeing to an interview with Australian journalists.

She allegedly said she was to exaggerate the facts involved in the murder of the Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, and had said that these are lies not to be trusted.

Speaking to Malaysiakini when contacted today, Americk said he and his team had been working on Selvi's cases on a pro bono basis, only to be disparaged in public.

As such, he said he is unable to continue with her case now pending at the Federal Court, unless she clarifies the matter by retracting her statements and making a public apology to him.

“If she has compromised my position as her counsel, then I have every right to give her my legal bills, which (Pertubuhan Minda Sosial dan Prihatin (PMSP) leader Ramesh Rao) can go and pay since he is such an altruist.

“I have never asked for legal bills before, but in this difficult situation that she has put me in, then what do I do? I am reserving my right to bill her,” he said, sounding exasperated.

Earlier today, PMSP deputy president Zakwan Hafiz Ahmad Ansari revealed the contents of a letter sent from Americk to Selvi yesterday morning.

In the letter, Americk raised issue with the allegations of being induced into speaking to the foreign media with exaggerated information, and notes that these allegations have since been published in New Straits Times ' Sunday edition on the following day.

“You have made the above statements and remarks knowing that they are false, untrue, and completely baseless. In the process of doing so you have effectively compromised my position as your solicitor and counsel in the above-mentioned matters currently before the courts, apart from referring to me as a liar.

“In the circumstances, unless you are able to publicly retract those false and untrue statements within 48 hours from the time you receive this letter, and at the same time issue a public apology to me personally, I will not be in a position to act for you further in the above or any other matters,” Americk wrote.

The letter adds that if the apology and retraction is not forthcoming, Selvi ( photo ) should appoint another legal firm to represent her as Americk and his team will be discharging themselves from the case and will “render my bills for legal work done to date”.

Americk is currently representing Selvi in a case against the carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishian and several others, for allegedly conspiring to put her and her family on exile between 2003 and 2013.

The matter is currently set for case management at the Federal Court on March 25.

Zakwan told reporters this morning that he spoke to Selvi and her children yesterday, and found that the issue of legal fees never arose in the three years Americk had represented her.

He said while it is Americk's prerogative to discharge himself from the case and charge her legal fees, the letter puts a lot of pressure on Selvi, especially since she is already in financial distress.

“(When people read the letter) people would wonder if this harassment, if this is a threat, if this has certain motives? Whereas for the past three years, you have been helping Mrs Selvi with this and that.

“Suddenly in the wake of the press conference, you want to discharge yourself.

“I don't blame him. Perhaps the way his law firm works. It's his prerogative. But what he writes here puts immense pressure on Mrs Selvi. Moreover, she is already having difficulties with finances,” Zakwan said.

Apologised to Rosmah Mansor

In the Saturday press conference, Selvi read out a statement saying she wants to apologise to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his family on behalf of her own and her late husband's behalf.

“(This is for) all the difficulties, hardship, and slander experienced by all parties, in relation to my late husband's involvement in the Altantuya murder case.

“I want to explain that me and my late husband had been cheated by all the promised given by certain individuals,” she said.

However, when questioned by reporters, she changed her tune and said she only wants to apologise to Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor.

Out of anger in the wake of his death, she had accused Rosmah of being responsible for Balasubramaniam's passing although he had died of a heart attack in 2013, she said.

She also stressed that the press conference that day had nothing to do with her late husband's allegations nor the pending court case, and the apology deals solely with her having misspoken following Balasubramaniam's death.

She told reporters that the written statement was prepared by Ramesh, based on what she told him.

The text highlighted by Americk in his letter forms a portion of the statement that was not read by Selvi during the press conference, but it was distributed to all reporters present that day.

Balasubramaniam, better known as PI Bala, had made a statutory declaration in 2003 implicating Najib and his associate Abdul Razak Baginda in the murder of the Mongolian national Altantuya Shaaribu.

He then made a second SD on the following day recanting his accusations, and then fled the country with his family including Selvi, eventually ending up in India.

They returned in 2013, where Balasubramaniam recanted his second SD and affirmed that the first SD was true.

Najib has denied involvement in Altantuya murder while Abdul Razak was acquitted by the court. Two former police officers Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar were found guilty of the murder instead.

Commenting further on the letter, Americk said the letter was meant to seek clarification on whether Selvi still wants him to act as her lawyer, and whether she had been manipulated into speaking at the press conference.

He said the letter was meant to be private and confidential, as he was duty-bound not to say anything that could affect his client. This is also why he had not rebutted the allegations against him in public.

This changed when Selvi disclosed the letter to PMSP, which in turn distributed copies of it to the media.

“Everybody is doing this (handling Selvi's case) out of the goodness of their hearts, only to be slapped in the face by what she has said.

“The issue here really is, who drafted the statement? Was it her or was it somebody else? Does she know what she was supposed to read before she read it? Were there other people who were manipulating her?

“This is what I need to know before. It needs to be clarified before I step into the court on March 25 […]

“It is embarrassing for me to appear in court, because all of this is in public domain now. So I'm reserving my rights. I can't just do nothing, my name is being dragged through the mud!” Americk said.

He admitted that the issue of legal fees was never raised, but this was only because the services were provided on a pro bono basis.

On another matter, Americk denied allegations that he had been handling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news crew and an earlier Al-Jazeera news crew, as alleged by Zakwan earlier today.

The two news crews were each working on their own documentaries on the Altantuya case.

Americk explained that they had approached him for an interview with Selvi.

In turn, he asked Selvi if she was interested in being interviewed, and passed along her contact details if she agrees.

Apart from this, he stressed that he had no involvement in the interviews and was not present, and stressed that he had not told Selvi what to say in the interviews.