Kes VK Lingam: Saksi datang sendiri ke Parlimen

harakah
KUALA LUMPUR, 10 Nov: Kenyataan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz di Dewan Rakyat semalam bahawa siasatan terhadap kes Datuk V.K Lingam terpaksa ditutup kerana tidak ada saksi telah dibidas dan disanggah.

Bidasan kenyataan itu telah dibuat oleh salah seorang saksi penting, dalam kes video terbabit, Jayanthi L.G Naidu yang hadir ke parlimen hari ini bagi menjelaskan perkara itu.

Beliau juga merupakan bekas setiausaha Lingam dan pernah terbabit dalam menguruskan perbelanjaan percutian VK Lingam dan mengagihkan sejumlah wang kepada hakim tertentu.

R. Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) dalam satu sidang media bersama Jayanthi di lobi parlimen tengahari tadi berkata, jawapan Nazri itu langsung tidak munasabah malah beliau sendiri mempunyai bukti yang kukuh berhubung percutian Lingam, dan bekas Ketua Hakim Negara, Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin pada tahun 1994.

Menurutnya, beliau sendiri ketika itu membuat tempahan tiket untuk Lingam, Eusoff Chin serta keluarga masing-masing dan menguruskan bayaran untuk perjalanan mereka.

Beliau turut mengakui pernah mengeluarkan sejumlah wang bernilai RM 100, 000 hingga RM300, 000 untuk diberikan kepada hakim yang terlibat.

Sementara itu Dr. Dzulkifli Ahmad (PAS-Kuala Selangor) dalam sidang media yang sama menegaskan meskipun Nazri mengatakan Lingam tidak melanggar sebarang undang-undang kerana melobi pelantikan hakim, namun tindakan Lingam jelas merosakkan institusi kehakiman.

"Mungkin dari sudut akta dan undang-undang betul tapi dalam suasana negara sangat-sangat berhajatkan untuk membaik pulih institusi kehakiman yang telah reput maka apa jua tindakan yang ditanggapi sebagai merosakkan lagi institusi kehakiman ini adalah salah," tegasnya.

Video links CJ to 'appointment fixing' scandal

©Malaysiakini (Used by permission)
by Fauwaz Abdul Aziz & Beh Lih Yi

Wednesday, 19 September 2007 12:52pm
 An explosive video clip released today shows senior lawyer VK Lingam in a phone conversation, purportedly with current Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, allegedly fixing the appointment of ‘friendly’ senior judges.

The eight-minute clip, said to be originally 14 minutes when recorded sometime in 2002, was made public this morning at the office of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim in Petaling Jaya.

Among the matters discussed during the telephone conversation were the potential appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as the Chief Judge of Malaya (CJM) and his promotion as the Chief Justice (CJ), which eventually took place in 2003.

In 2002, Ahmad Fairuz was the CJM, in charge of all High Court judges in Peninsular Malaysia, as well as acting President of the Court of Appeal (PCA).

Reading from a prepared statement, Anwar said the revelations proved that his appeals against his sodomy and abuse of power convictions were tainted and that he was denied a proper and fair trial.

To many he is the senior lawyer in the videotape apparently brokering the appointment of ‘friendly judges’ into top positions in the judiciary but to others, he is a powerful and well-connected lawyer. 

Who really is VK Lingam? 

Malaysiakini reconstructed this portfolio based on information available in a company annual report where Lingam is a director and news reports posted on the Internet. 

Kanagalingam Veluppillai, 56, began his career by serving several multinational and local companies in various senior management positions between 1973 and 1983. 

While serving as human resources manager in UMW Holdings under the stewardship of Eric Chia (who later headed Perwaja Steel Holdings), he left to study law at the University of Buckingham, England, and graduated in 1985. 

On his return, he re-joined UMW as its group legal advisor in 1985, but started his own practice four years later. 

He was first caught in controversy when photographs surfaced on the Internet of him and then Chief Justice Eusoff Chin while they were on holiday in New Zealand in 1994 (right). 

Eusoff denied that the holiday was paid for by Lingam - as had been alleged - and they had merely bumped into one another. It was revealed later that the two had been on same flight from Singapore to Auckland. 

Following the discovery of the photos, the Bar Council sought to take disciplinary action against