Court: Jude Pereira can practise law

Bar Council has said his application cannot be processed until the appeal on the matter has been disposed of.

PUTRAJAYA: Judy Blacious Pereira, who was the investigating officer in PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim’s second sodomy case, can practise law, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

The three-member Court of Appeal panel dismissed a Bar Council appeal to set aside a High Court decision.

Justice David Wong Dak Wah, who chaired the panel, upheld the December 17, 2014, decision of the Ipoh High Court to allow Pereira to be admitted to the Bar as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.

“We have reached a unanimous decision. We see no reason to interfere with the findings of the trial judge,” he said.

The panel, which also comprised Justices Abdul Rahman Sebli and Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham, did not award legal costs as it was of the view that the Bar Council was undertaking its statutory function.
Pereira, 61, said he was admitted to the Bar on March 31 and was looking forward to practising law and also to setting up his own legal firm in Ipoh.

He said had written to the Bar Council to process his application to set up his firm but had received a reply from the council that his application could not be processed until the appeal on the matter had been disposed of.

“I am happy with the (Court of Appeal) decision,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, counsel for the Bar Council, said he would seek instruction from his client on whether to bring the matter up to the Federal Court.

Earlier, in today’s proceedings, Malik argued that the High Court judge had completely ignored the unchallenged evidence pointing to Pereira not being of “good character”.
However, counsel Dominic Selvam submitted that his client was of good character as he was not subjected to any police investigation or disciplinary action while in the police force.

Pereira filed his first petition to become a lawyer on July 23, 2012, after retiring in the same year.

The Bar Council had objected to his admission, citing a Suhakam inquiry into a case involving the arrest of five lawyers during a candlelight vigil in 2009, which held that Pereira was not a credible witness.

On December 17 last year, the High Court in Ipoh allowed Pereira to be called to the Bar on condition that he attended some human rights seminars, forums, activities or programmes organised by the Bar Council’s human rights committee, to which he (Pereira) had complied with.

Pereira was the investigating officer in Anwar’s second sodomy case.

Anwar is serving a five-year jail term after his final appeal against his conviction and jail sentence for having sodomised his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan was dismissed by the Federal Court on Feb 10 this year.

– BERNAMA