KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today said three reports were filed against the Court of Appeal judge Datuk Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
In a statement, the MACC said the reports were filed on March 15, April 23 and 27.
MACC added that the investigation into Nazlan’s alleged corruption case is still at its early stage and urged the public to allow the Anti-Corruption officers to do their job.
“When an investigation is initiated against any individual, it does not mean that the said individual has committed an offence. With that, the MACC asks the public to allow the investigation to be conducted,” said the statement.
The MACC statement came following mounting criticism over the probe into Court of Appeal judge Nazlan’s alleged corruption.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia described the action by the MACC as “unconstitutional and unprecedented”.
The Malaysian Bar President, Karen Cheah Yee Lynn, said that the probe undermined the independence of the judiciary.
A blogger last week published a news article on Malaysia Today alleging that Nazlan was being investigated for unexplained money in his bank account. Nazlan filed a police report against the blogger, media reported.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today insisted it has all the power to investigate any one suspected including judges.
“Judges in the country too fall under the jurisdiction of civil servants and the regulating body has the power to investigate them for any alleged abuse of power.
In the statement, the MACC said that it has been given the power to investigate such allegations under the MACC Act 2009, including “officers of a public body” as defined in Section 3 of the Act:
“An officer of a public body means any person who is a member, an officer, an employee or a servant of a public body, and includes a member of the administration, a member of Parliament, a member of a State Legislative Assembly, a judge of the High Court, Court of Appeal or Federal Court, and any person receiving any remuneration from public funds, and, where the public body is a corporation sole, includes the person who is incorporated as such”.
The MACC also stressed that it had investigated other judges in the past with their investigation papers sent to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) and insisted it was normal practice.
“In line with the principle of the separation of powers, after all probes are completed, investigation papers are referred to the AGC to decide whether to prosecute or not,” it said
Nazlan was the judge who convicted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over misappropriation of RM42mil of SRC International Sdn Bhd funds.
