WILL NAJIB SHUT GANI UP? Sacked A-G to speak at Bar forum on Tuesday

Former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail will be making his first public appearance at a forum next Tuesday on the new security law which has been criticised as draconian.

He will be speaking alongside president of the Malaysian Bar Steven Thiru and criminal lawyer Amer Hamzah at the forum titled “Sosma: Wolf in sheep’s clothing?” organised by the Bar Council.

Lawyer Andrew Khoo, who will be moderating the session, said he would be looking at the abuse of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) for political purposes and why the authorities needed to use the law.

“I will be looking at questioning why there was the need to use Sosma and whether it is being used according to state needs.

“And if the mechanism is being abused to override fundamental liberties and accepted criminal law procedure in favour of security offences, denial of bail, and so on,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Recently, Sosma was used against former Umno branch leader Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his counsel, Matthias Chang, for attempted sabotage of the economy after they lodged police reports on debt-ridden state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Khairuddin and Chang were charged under Section 124L of the Penal Code with attempted sabotage of the economy and the financial and banking sectors, which carries a jail term of up to 15 years upon conviction.

The charge with attempting economic sabotage relates to troubled 1MDB, as Khairuddin had lodged reports in several countries against the firm.

Their detention, however, is under Sosma, a law which is meant to address acts of terrorism and which allows for detention up to 29 days without the need for a court order.

Gani, who served as A-G for 13 years from 2003, was removed abruptly from office on July 27 while he was part of the multi-agency special task force investigating 1MDB and the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) channelled into the private accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He then retired from the judicial and legal service on October 5, a day before turning 60, the mandatory retirement age for civil servants. – TMI