A complaint has been lodged with the Anti-Corruption Agency yesterday against Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim over allegations of corruption and professional misconduct found in a poison-pen letter.


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 Two former Transparency International Malaysia presidents Param Cumaraswamy and Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim lodged the report after meeting ACA deputy director Abu Kassim Mohamed yesterday.


 Speaking at a press conference today, Param said he received an anonymous letter two months ago and had forwarded it to Ahmad Fairuz calling for an investigation on July 20.


 However, there has been no response from the CJ, according to Param.


 "Among the several allegations in the anonymous letter was one that the CJ had discussions with a High Court judge recently over a decision in a suit where VK Lingam was counsel for one of the parties.


 "The judgment eventually was delivered in favour of the party represented by Lingam," the former UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers said.


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 The decision to meet Abu Kassim was sparked by the recent emergence of a
 
 <a href="/news/" target="_blank">
 video clip
 </a>
 
 showing senior lawyer Lingam in a telephone conversation purportedly with Ahmad Fairuz in 2002.
 
 
 [
 
 <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.tv/?vid=1378" target="_blank">
 
 Watch video here
 
 </a>
 
 ]
 
 


 The conversation revolved around the urgent need to get Ahmad Fairuz to be elevated to the judiciary's top spot and "key players" should be nominated for judicial appointments in order to hear cases and deliver judgments accordingly


 Lingam's conversation also included references to tycoon Vincent Tan, a close crony of then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, a then minister in the PM's Department.


 
 
 Inside information
 
 


 
 Malaysiakini
 
 got hold of the three-page poison pen letter which detailed various allegations of extravagant claims, favouritism, abuse of power, corruption and judgment fixing by Ahmad Fairuz.


 Laden with typos, the letter written in English, also alleged professional misconduct by other judges currently sitting on the bench.


 "Whoever wrote it had a lot of inside information. The time has come that some of these allegations need to be looked into," Param said today.


 "In this country, a rumour is presumed to be true until proven otherwise," he mused.


 Former special adviser on ethics to the United Nations secretary-general Tunku Abdul Aziz said that appointments and judicial promotion during Ahmad Fairuz's tenure must be reviewed in light of the scandalous video clip that surfaced on Wednesday.


 "Some judgments of courts including that of the Federal Court empaneled by the Chief Justice will need to be reviewed.


 "There have been concerns expressed by litigants over the integrity of those judgements," he stressed.


 In their joint statement, they urge Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to invoke Article 125 of the federal constitution to set up a tribunal for the removal of Ahmad Fairuz as judge.


 "The fact that he will soon be retiring should not be a consideration not to invoke this procedure", they said.


 Param told reporters the video clip's contents "confirm the concerns expressed by many in the past on how our justice system has been manipulated by certain personalities".


 "It also confirms that there must be a sizeable number of litigants who must have been subjected to judicial injustice before Malaysian courts as a result of such manipulations."


 Ahmad Fairuz's tenure as the top judge, which he assumed in 2003, ends in October. Lingam and Fairuz have not commented on the video clip.


 
 
 Watch a three-minute video on the press conference here

The Lingam tape
 

With a scandalous video clip out in the open, the Chief Justice now has to answer to a poison pen letter alleging corrupt practices and abuse of power by him and his 'favourite' judges.

 
 [VIDEO INSIDE]

Poison-pen letter against CJ finally surfaces

~RM12

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