Senior lawyer latest ‘player’ in Bala’s SD2

Lawyer-activist Haris Ibrahim said the senior lawyer allegedly involved in drafting the SD had committed “the gravest of sins”.

PETALING JAYA: A senior lawyer is the latest “player” allegedly involved in the drafting of the second statutory declaration (SD2) by private investigator P Balasubramaniam.

And the Bar Council has been urged to investigate the role of this lawyer.

The lawyer, who apparently holds the title of “Tan Sri”, and his son were recently revealed by businessman Deepak Jaikishan in an interview to have been allegedly responsible for the preparation of documents for Balasubramaniam before he signed the “SD2″.

The “SD2″ had reversed an earlier one which implicated Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in the murder of Mongolioan national Altantuya Shaarribuu.

In an official letter sent to the Bar Council secretary Tony Woon yesterday, lawyer-activist Haris Ibrahim asked that the bar to launch an investigation to identify the solicitor (s) concerned and to “ascertain if there was any impropriety in the preparation of SD2”.

Speaking to FMT before sending the letter, Haris said that he hopes the Bar Council would be as vigorous as it was when the VK Linggam scandal broke in 2007, as the latest revelations are “serious” if it was indeed true that the lawyer had not consulted Balasubramaniam before drafting the SD.

“It points at a very senior member of the bar potentially involved in a dishonest act. I think every member of the Bar should go up in arms and be very concerned.”

“Any practitioner worth his salt knows that when drafting an SD or affidavit one has to seek instruction from his client. Was the person aware of the purpose and objective of this SD? It could mean that the lawyer was privy to a conspiracy to subvert the course of justice, subvert the disclosure of truth. Officers of the court are to aid in the truth, not suppressing it,” he said.

“I’m very sure that the nature of this impropriety could amount to the lawyer being struck off the roll… he obviously is a dishonest practitioner,” he added.

In a blog post yesterday, Haris said the senior lawyer had committed “the gravest of sins” and threatened that if the Bar Council does not properly probe the matter, he would reveal the name of the “scumbag” in two weeks and allow the matter to be taken up in court.

Motive never established

On July, 3, 2008, Balasubramaniam emerged with a SD which linked Najib to Altantuya’s 2006 murder. However, the private investigator reversed his first SD via a second SD the next day in the presence of lawyer M Arunampalam. He then disappeared.

On Oct 27, 2009, Balasubramaniam came out of hiding and reaffirmed that his first statutory declaration was true. He claimed he was offered RM5 million to retract it by Deepak together with Najib’s brother Nazim.

In the past few weeks, Deepak has claimed, among other things, that Rosmah was the person who instructed him to seek out Balasubramaniam to change his SD.

In confirming his role in the second SD, Deepak claimed he met Najib and Rosmah at their residence to discuss the second statutory declaration and that Nazim was sent to negotiate with Balasubramaniam.

Deepak also claimed that Najib had chosen the “Tan Sri laywer and his son” to prepare the SD before Balasubramaniam was told to sign it. He also said that Arulampalam was not involved in the making of the second SD.

Attempts by FMT to contact the “Tan Sri lawyer” have been unsuccessful.

Altantuya was shot and murdered in October 2006, with her remains destroyed by C-4 explosives.

Her alleged lover and political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a close friend of Najib, was charged with the murder with two other policemen.

Abdul Razak was acquitted while the policemen were convicted, though the motive was never established.