KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney-General Tommy Thomas has denied allegations that he failed to advise the Conference of Rulers on the need to commit to the Rome Statute.
Utusan Malaysia reported him as telling reporters that the allegations were false and he would explain the matter on Saturday (April 27).
“Of course, it (accusations of failing to convince the Council of Rulers) is not true,” Thomas said.
“When it’s raining, they put the blame on me. When there is no rain, they blame me too,” he said.
Thomas’ remarks were in response to a statement by lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz, who said during a forum that the reason the government decided to withdraw from the Rome Statute was because Thomas and law professor Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi had failed to convince the Conference of Rulers.
Mohd Khairul said two law experts were invited to debate the findings by four academics, who advised the Rulers to reject the Rome Statute.
On April 2, a group of student activists leaked a 10-page executive summary prepared by the four academics, claiming that the arguments in their summary were one-sided and only discussed why the Conference of Rulers should reject the Rome Statute.
The four academics are Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) law professor Datuk Dr Rahmat Mohamad, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Dr Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia law lecturers Dr Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi.
It was reported on April 5 that Malaysia would withdraw from ratifying the international treaty that covers serious crimes and crimes against humanity.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Cabinet had decided not to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which governs the prosecution of perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression.
THE STAR
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