Malaysian judges were sent to an indoctrination “boot camp” and threatened with dismissal to pressure them into making pro-government decisions, a senior judge said, according to reports yesterday.
In allegations made in open court, Justice Ian Chin also said he was threatened by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad over high-profile cases, one involving a close associate of the then-leader.
“Now, though he is no longer the prime minister and so no longer able to carry out his threat to remove judges, the coalition party that he led is still around,” he said, according to the Borneo Post.
Chin told an open court Monday that Mahathir — who led Malaysia between 1981 and 2003 — made a “thinly veiled threat” to judges who attended a conference in 1997 that they could be removed “if any judgment is to his dislike.”
He said he was targeted by Mahathir after refusing to award “astronomical” payouts in two libel cases in 1997, while a judge who agreed was promoted.
Afterwards, Chin said he was packed off to a five-day boot camp with selected judges and judicial officers.
It was without any doubt “an attempt to indoctrinate those attending the boot camp to hold the view that the government interest as being more important than all else when we are considering our judgment,” he said.
Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan urged the government yesterday to conduct an immediate investigation, saying that “elements of interference have to be put down once and for all.”
“Clearly there are many things that plagued the judiciary,” she said. “We have to ensure this interference in the judiciary never happens again.”
Mahathir has long been accused of interfering in the courts. He dismissed or suspended several judges for alleged misconduct in 1988 in what was widely considered a move to quash the independence of the judiciary.
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