PETALING JAYA: Bersatu Youth has questioned Umno’s demands for a royal commission of inquiry into claims made by former attorney-general Tommy Thomas that there was political interference in the judiciary.
Mohamad Siddiq Azani of Bersatu Youth’s legal bureau said the call for an inquiry raised the perception that court cases against Umno leaders such as former president Najib Razak and current president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were a result of political interference.
“This does not make sense,” he said in a post on the Bersatu Youth page.
Najib faces trial on three charges of money laundering after having been convicted on charges involving 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, while Zahid faces 47 charges of alleged criminal breach of trust, money laundering and corruption.
Siddiq said: “Is the judiciary only ‘fair’ when their findings side with Umno or Najib and ‘unfair’ when they do not side with them? If this is the perception that they wish to raise, it is very unhealthy and it is an insult to the integrity of our judges.”
He also cited recent court decisions which were beneficial to Umno, such as a recent order to return to Najib all the money amounting to RM114 million that was seized by police in 2018 which supposedly belong to Najib and Umno.
He added that the Federal Court had recently decided to strike out a suit by 16 ex-Umno members to declare the political party illegal and have it dissolved for not conducting party elections.
Yesterday, Zahid said the Supreme Council and Ismail Sabri Yaakob have reached a consensus on a few demands including the setting up of an inquiry into the claims made by Thomas in his memoirs.
Among the claims were his admission to having had discussions with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when both were in office, on the appointments of the chief judge, the president of the Court of Appeal of Malaysia and the chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak.
Earlier this year, Umno Youth had also called for an inquiry to look into Thomas’ claims. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.