Malaysia's judiciary faced fresh allegations of high-level corruption yesterday when opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim released a video apparently showing a lawyer claiming to have bribed a top judge.
Anwar sparked an outcry in September when he made public a secretly filmed video clip of a man who appeared to be prominent lawyer V.K. Lingam telling someone on the phone in 2001 that he could use his political and business connections to get that person promoted as chief justice.
Anwar released what he said was the next segment of that video yesterday. The five-minute footage showed the same man in the video alleging that he had given "the most expensive gift" to a former top judge and taken him out to dinner three times.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The release of the clip in September led the government to order a public inquiry that began on Jan. 14. Lingam has refused to confirm or deny whether he is the man in the video, claiming he cannot recall the incident.
Anwar said the clip highlighted the urgency for the inquiry to "operate with the highest level of integrity and transparency so as not to be seen as feeding the rot which has tarnished the Malaysian courts."
Lingam testified at the inquiry yesterday that he was approached in 2000 by another lawyer who wanted him to ask former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad to appoint that lawyer as a judge. Lingam said he told the lawyer that he "couldn't help him."
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