Don T Play That Game Judge To Sangeet On Affidavit Served After Leak

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Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril today questioned lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo on how an affidavit containing explosive allegations against the judiciary leaked into the public domain before it was formally served in court. This caused the defendants to receive the affidavit only after the contents had become public knowledge, he said
Sangeet maintained she had adhered proper procedure, and said she had no knowledge of how the leak happened
She also mentioned that the Attorney-General Tommy Thomas had already “acted” on the matter
Firuz then replied: “Don't play that game with me.”Earlier, the judge questioned why Sangeet served her affidavit-in-reply today when “everybody had access” to the document since more than a week ago
The lawyer clarified she had filed the papers on Feb 14, but had followed instructions to serve it to the defendants today
However, Firuz said Sangeet should not have waited for her affidavit-in-reply to be circulated to the public before formally serving it
The judge said that he himself previously had access to the document, and wondered how long the RCI would take.  “All of us want to get to the bottom of it [...] there are honest judges as well,” he commented
On Feb 14, Malaysiakini reported that Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer (photo) had filed an affidavit in support of Sangeet's application to declare that the chief justice had failed to defend the integrity of the judiciary in two cases
The 65-page affidavit had alleged several instances of judicial impropriety and accused certain judges of colluding with politicians and private entities to swindle public funds
This led to the government announcing that it would establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to probe the judiciary
Speaking to reporters after today's proceedings, Sangeet, who is the daughter of the late DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh, maintained she did not know how the document became public
“I think it has been going around on WhatsApp, all over the place
“Even I received it on WhatsApp. It was very surprising how that could have happened,” she said
Last week, Malaysiakini quoted a high-level source questioning the delay in serving the affidavit to the Attorney-General's Chambers
“The AGC is acting for the chief justice's office and it (the affidavit) has not been served to us
"We think that the affidavit was leaked collaterally (by Hamid's lawyers)," claimed the source
Meanwhile, Firuz also told lawyer Jaharberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, who has been appointed to represent Sangeet, to stop writing about the case or Hamid's allegations in the press as it could be considered sub judice
This is following Jaharbedeen’s recent article in the English-language daily The Star. - Mkini

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