The Pakatan Rakyat-ruled Selangor state government’s move to protect its employees from what it claims has been highly irregular interrogation practices by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) appears set to become a landmark case in the country.
This follows after the death of Teoh Beng Hock, a former reporter turned political secretary to first-term state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah. He was found dead outside the Selangor office of the MACC on July 16, after being questioned overnight over claims that his boss had abused state funds.
Following the tragic incident, Mentri Besar (MB) Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim issued a directive last July to stop some 18,000 state government staff from being interrogated by the MACC outside of office hours.
A couple of weeks later, the Attorney-General (AG) issued a summons declaring Khalid’s circular to be against the law on the grounds that it was interfering with the graft busters’ duties.
But Khalid struck back last Friday, when he filed papers at the High Court here to set aside the AG’s originating summons.
In his affidavit, which is as thick as a telephone directory, Khalid pointed out that the AG had no standing to take legal action against the state government as it was the MACC, an independent and separate statutory body, that was affected by the ruling.
The AG’s Chambers only has the power to prosecute and was, in fact, interfering with the state’s action, said lawyer Yusmadi Yusoff, who was in court today representing the PR state government.
The High Court deputy registrar fixed Sept 15 for the mention of the suit, which is now at the case management stage.
The AG will have to file his affidavits in reply
comments
What is wrong with keeping to office hours for MACC questioning? Does the MACC need the cover of night to practise their Gestapo tactics on interviewees? Questioning at night points to ill-intent on the part of MACC with sleep deprivation and intimidation possible. The A-G is shameless in not safeguarding public rights but looking after Umno's interests.
MACC and the AG needs after office hours interrogation because they think they're batman and robin. Hold a guy outside the window from his belt upside down and force a confession so when the sun is down so no one can see. Unfortunately for Teoh, his belt broke.
The Selangor govt was protected its employees from an abuse of power by the MACC who appears to be "trigger-happy" asking questions at anytime and for as long as they want, thinking that they're police officers.
Hope the High Court rules in favour of the Selangor govt.
Why only interrogate opposition's witnesses after office hours? Why BN's witness was interrogated (more like interview) at his own office and within office hours? One death is more than enough.
The only reason could be that if and when the interrogators gets nasty and starts hurting the witnesses or accused, there will be no one around to bear witness to their willingness to torture the witnesses.
Otherwise, why should they choose to only interrogate opposition's witnesses or accused only after hours when they can interview BN's warlord with deep pocket, Tiong King Sing during office hours and in his own office?
They did mention that they choose to interrogate witnesses after office hours because the witnesses requested to have it after work hours so that it doesn't interfere with their normal work. Now, the MB has declared that the interrogations can be done in the office and during work hours - so, what's the fuss?
Why still demand to do it after office hours when there's no one around unless there's ulterior motive behind their insistence. One witness had died because of lapse of judgement by MACC on the witness's personal safety.
Not enough precautions to ensure safety of witnesses while within the MACC's controlled environment had resulted in a loss of life. There must be no more blood spilled as a result of actions arising from the demands of MACC.
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