The Bar Council today called on Chief Justice Zaki Azmi to set the record straight following the recent relevation by senior lawyer Karpal Singh that he possesses an audio tape purportedly that of him (Zaki) admitting to bribing court staff.

ambiga sreenevasan Its chairperson S Ambiga said although it is noted the audio recording is unclear, it is our view that the chief justice must be given a chance to explain.

"He must explain if these comments were in fact made. It is not in the interests of the administration of justice to leave the matter unresolved," she added in a statement to Malaysiakini .

This was the Bar Council's first statement on the issue.

Zaki had been dogged by this issue ever since he was appointed as the new chief justice in October, replacing Abdul Hamid Mohamad, who retired.

On Feb 11, Zaki was also appointed chairperson of the newly minted Judicial Appointments Commission.

Karpal had on Wednesday, played the recording for journalists during a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

'Unfit to be chief justice'

zaki azmi According to the senior lawyer, the recording was made while Zaki was delivering his speech at a convention in Kuching last November on 'Integrity, the catalyst of sustainable development'.

The DAP chairperson and Bukit Gelugor MP however refused to reveal where he had obtained the recording.

Following this, Karpal had said Zaki was unfit to be the chief justice and urged the police to investigate the matter.

He also lodged a police report against him on Nov 13, reported Zaki to the prime minister and submitted a memorandum to the Yang di Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin last month on the same issue.

Karpal had also challenged Zaki to sue him for defamation.

parliament 180209 karpal singh The opposition leader had urged Zaki to step down voluntarily, failing which he said he would call on the Conference of Rulers to meet in an emergency session to "withdraw their consent to Zaki's appointment as chief justice to pave way for his removal".

Zaki was quoted by the media as saying that in 1987, he had been "blacklisted" when he complained to the chief registrar about two missing files.

He had allegedly said, "It took me six months to be nice, to bribe each and every individual to get back into their good books before our files were attended to."

"That is my personal experience, I am telling this to all the clerks and all the registries to stop this nonsense."

The outspoken Karpal had also called on the entire Bar Council in December to resign following its silence on the issue.

In an immediate reaction then, Ambiga said that the council had not heard nor seen any evidence to contradict Zaki's denial.

AUDIO RECORDING l 29 secs

Due to the poor quality of the recording, please refer to the following transcript when listening to the audio file.

"It took me six months to be nice, to bribe each and every individual to get back into their good books before our files were attended to."

"That is my personal experience, I am telling this to all the clerks and all the registries to stop this nonsense."