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Former Chief Justice criticises recent ruling by Federal Court

KUALA LUMPUR: A former Chief Justice has criticised the recent ruling by the Federal Court which found that the investigation against Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had violated protocol.

In his blog post, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad said there were no written laws or protocols as described by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat mentioned by the courts before its formulation by the Federal Court during its ruling last week.

"The court exploited the idea of judicial independence and developed a new protocol in the absence of any clear constitutional provisions to rely on.

"How can the court hold MACC accountable for failing to adhere to a protocol that is yet to exist? This is common sense. How can none of the judges think about it?

"In essence, MACC was discovered to have violated a protocol that was not established yet.

"Whatever it is, the ruling provided the courts with justification to criticise the investigation," he said.

Hamid said he was concerned with the decisions delivered by Federal Court in the past years as some decisions were seen as overstepping their jurisdiction.

He added that the present judgment gave the impression that the legislative and executive branches of the government have no independence in performing their duty.

"They are subject to what the Constitution allows and the law. By placing judges at a higher position than the government ministers and rulers by requiring the authorities to consult the chief justice before initiating a probe against serving judges, the court has taken over Parliament's jurisdiction to make laws and create "protocols" which must be complied with by MACC and other investigative bodies."

Hamid stated that the judgement implied that the MACC investigation had been conducted dishonestly and for "collateral purposes" as well.

Nazlan was the High Court judge who convicted and sentenced Datuk Seri Najib Razak to 12 years jail and a RM210 million fine for misappropriating RM42 million of SRC International Bhd funds.

"What other purpose could there have been? Only one comes to mind, which is to secure a court ruling that (former prime minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak was wronged and deserves a retrial.

"Have the judges overlooked the fact that MACC spent tens, if not hundreds, of hours looking into Najib's case? The MACC would want Najib to be found guilty.

"Instead, MACC was portrayed as defending Najib."

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