Gopal Sri Ram says Malaysians should be grateful that Sitpah Selvaratnam, who specialises in admiralty law, is offering her service in the Equanimity seizure case for free.
Gopal Sri Ram. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: A retired judge has come out in support of Attorney-General Tommy Thomas for appointing a consultant from his former firm to represent the government over the seizure of the luxury yacht Equanimity.
Gopal Sri Ram said it was not unusual for the AG to engage solicitors in private practice to appear for the government in delicate cases.
The former Federal Court judge said there were precedents for this matter.
“Just after Merdeka, the legal firm Braddel and Ramani used to appear for the government in complex cases,” he told FMT.
He said a lawyer from the firm, Radhakrishna Ramani, was engaged in a number of cases for which the Attorney-General’s Chambers did not have the expertise.
“As for the people of Malaysia, they are entitled to the best representation and Sitpah Selvaratnam is the leading authority in admiralty law.
“She is the recognised expert. So there is nothing surprising in the AG asking her to act for the government,” he added.
Moreover, Sri Ram said, Sitpah was doing it for free and Malaysians should be grateful to her instead of nit-picking and being childish.
He said admiralty law was a very specialised area and not everyone was familiar with it.
Earlier today, Thomas defended the appointment of Sitpah, a longtime chairman of the Bar Council’s Shipping and Admiralty Law Committee and the founding president of the International Malaysian Society of Maritime Law, to help handle the case.
Sitpah’s appointment to the government’s legal team came under question after it was revealed that she was from the law firm Tommy Thomas.
Umno Youth’s young lawyers secretariat chairman Nik Saiful Adli Burhan had voiced concerns that this could lead to a conflict of interest.
However, Thomas said there was no question of conflict of interest because “we are all on the same side”.
“It is neither right nor sensible for Malaysia to be deprived of the services of Sitpah merely because I was in the firm where she has been a consultant for the past eight years,” he said.
Thomas said he decided to turn to the Bar, and chose three of Malaysia’s leading shipping lawyers – Sitpah, Jeremy Joseph and Ong Chee Kwan – to represent the claimants (1MDB and the government) along with senior federal counsel Alice Loke. --FMT
Well AG only those liie us with same concience is in the same boat but not them the complainant even though they are Malaysian because their concience is not clear. Ada udang di sebalik mee.
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