Bar Council still awaiting Deepak’s reply on ‘Tan Sri’ lawyer

Council chairman Lim Chee Wee says the businessman has asked for time to substantiate his allegation about a rogue 'Tan Sri' lawyer.

PETALING JAYA: The Bar Council is still waiting for businessman Deepak Jaikishan to give it details of the alleged involvement of lawyer Cecil Abraham in private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s second statutory declaration (SD).

Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee said the council had made the relevant enquiries from Deepak with regard to his allegation.

“He has received a letter from the council, but he asked us to give him time before replying,” Lim said today.

Deepak, in a recent series of press conferences, mentioned the involvement of a “Tan Sri” lawyer in getting Balasubramanian to retract his first SD, which implicated Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor in the death of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.

The first SD was affirmed on July 1, 2008. The second SD, which contradicted the first, emerged on the next day.

Following Deepak’s revelation, former MACC advisory panelist Robert Phang identified the Tan Sri as lawyer Cecil Abraham, a current member of the panel.

Another public figure who has alleged that Abraham was the Tan Sri is activist lawyer Haris Ibrahim. Last week, he challenged Abraham to sue him over the allegation.

Haris said today that he had yet to receive a response from Abraham.

He has also been pressuring the Bar Council to investigate Deepak’s allegation. “I’ve done what I can,” he told FMT. “It’s up to the Bar Council to proceed with the matter.”

On the status of the council’s probe, Lim said: “The bar will make the necessary announcement as and when appropriate. It’ is not our policy to announce every step in the enquiry stage or even disciplinary stage.”