Accused of court contempt, Azalina says nothing else to add after past statement on SRC trial judge

PUTRAJAYA, April 12 — De facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said today declined to give additional comments in response to Selayang MP William Leong, who had accused her of committing contempt of court with her leaked letter regarding the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) investigations into the trial judge for Datuk Seri Najib Razak's SRC International Sdn Bhd case.

She said she had nothing to add after her April 6 press statement.

“No, no, I already answered from my media statement on the process. There's nothing else to say. What else to say? I'm an open book,” she told reporters here when asked about Leong's April 7 contempt of court accusations.

On April 6, news reports cited a leaked March 20 letter from Azalina in reply to Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah who was asking about MACC’s comments on its probe on the SRC trial judge.

Azalina’s letter was reported to have confirmed that the MACC had allegedly concluded that the SRC trial judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali purportedly had conflict of interest and allegedly violated the Judges’ Code of Ethics.

In the letter, Azalina informed Najib’s lawyers that the MACC had sent a letter to the chief justice regarding the purported breach of judicial ethics by the SRC trial judge.

Following the leak of her letter, Azalina on April 6 said that her reply letter to Najib’s lawyer contained the same information she had previously told the Dewan Rakyat on February 23.

She also stressed that any matters regarding the SRC trial judge are under the judiciary’s jurisdiction, and that the Malaysian government always respects and holds on to the principle of separation of powers.

Under the doctrine, the three branches of government — the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary — each exercise their powers independently.

It is unclear why the MACC, a body which comes under the executive branch of government, and which usually investigates corruption complaints, was submitting a report regarding alleged breach of code of ethics for judges to the chief justice.

The Malaysian Bar, the Sabah Law Society, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) and Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia (GBM) have since said that the MACC has no powers to decide whether a judge has conflict of interest or has breached judicial ethics, as it is for the judiciary to decide on such matters.