GEORGE TOWN: A law lecturer today concurred with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that the recent detention of state Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh, in connection with a probe into an illegal carbon filter factory in Sungai Lembu, is legal.
Shamsher Singh Thind said Phee's detention was legal, even though the remand order was set aside later.
"The detention would have been illegal only if the MACC refuses to release Phee after the remand order was set aside. This is a trite law.
"If truly Phee's detention is illegal, is the Penang government willing to sue the MACC?" he told the New Straits Times.
The MACC had on Friday given Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng 48 hours to apologise for describing Phee's recent arrest as "illegal detention".
The MACC which claimed that Lim's statement was slanderous, had said that it would initiate legal action against Lim if he failed to apologise within the stipulated time.
Lim has not offered any apology since.
However, Ramkarpal Singh, lawyer and DAP's Bukit Gelugor member of parliament, yesterday said that the MACC's ultimatum to Lim was ill-advised.
He had said that he saw no reason for Lim to respond to such a baseless ultimatum by the MACC, although it was open for the chief minister to do so.
MACC chief commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad had subsequently advised Ramkarpal to be careful in making such a statement as it contained defamatory elements.
Responding, Shamsher, a former DAP life member, said the MACC should not simply issue empty warning.
"Sue Lim (and Ramkarpal) or quit talking," he said.
Earlier today, Dzulkifli had said that the MACC) would hold a meeting on Sept 4 to decide on action to take against Lim for describing Phee's arrest as illegal.