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Saturday September 22, 1:59 PMMalaysian PM orders probe into judicial fixing claims
"We cannot treat this lightly. We will act fast to determine the truth," Abdullah was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper, following mounting pressure on the government to suspend the judge on suspicion of misconduct. Anwar unleashed a furore Wednesday by releasing a video clip that purportedly showed a well-connected lawyer telling a judge over the telephone that he would push his name forward for a senior appointment. Param Cumaraswamy, a former United Nations special rapporteur on judicial independence and one-time head of Transparency International Malaysia, called on Abdullah to remove the judge for gross misconduct and abuse of power. 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," he said Friday. But Abdullah warned that if the allegations were false, action would be taken against those who were trying to undermine the judiciary. The prime minister said he was not in favour of setting up an official Commission of Inquiry as demanded by Anwar, as the allegations in the video clip had yet to be proven as authentic. Abdullah was elected in 2004 in a landslide vote on the back of an anti-graft campaign, but the opposition and anti-corruption watchdogs say progress has been slow with few meaningful reforms. Anwar was heir apparent to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad until his sacking in 1998, when he was hit with sodomy and corruption charges that landed him in jail for six years. The sodomy conviction was later overturned but the corruption verdict stands, barring Anwar from standing for public office until April 2008. |
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