“Apologise Or Face Legal Action” Zaid & Partners Tell Malaysian Bar President
Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah had issued a press statement claiming that the three lawyers were “unprofessional”.
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Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah has until Friday (2 September) to retract a press statement and apologise to Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and two other lawyers in his firm – Liew Teck Huat and Rueben Mathiavanam – or face legal action from the trio.
According to The Star, the three lawyers from Messrs Zaid Ibrahim, Suflan TH Liew and Partners demanded a “full and unequivocal retraction and apology” from Cheah as the statement she issued was “grave and serious libel” of their conduct.
The group also seeks for Cheah not to repeat such statements concerning the lawyers in the future, for compensation of reasonable costs and expenses.
They said that Cheah’s statement issued on 19 August “falsely and maliciously” contained paragraphs concerning their conduct in appeal in the Federal Court.
The Edge reported that Cheah’s statement implied that the three senior members of the Malaysian Bar had deliberately acted unprofessionally by accepting the brief to Najib’s case with an improper agenda to abuse the court process.
She also implied that they accepted the brief with the ulterior motive of undermining the justice system by resorting to unscrupulous strategies.
Her press statement was covered by several news agencies including The Edge, Malay Mail and The Star.
Zaid firm had briefly represented incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak between 25 July and 18 August with an experienced lawyer from another firm, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik was roped in to lead the counsel after Najib had discarded his long-time lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah of Messrs Shafee & Co.
However, Zaid’s firm was dismissed by Najib after the Malaysian Federal Court rejected several attempts to postpone the case as the new defence team sought more time to prepare the argument for the appellant.
The apex court would on 23 August affirmed the conviction and sentence that was imposed on Najib for misappropriating funds from the SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Najib had been found guilty of one count of abuse of power, three counts of money laundering and three counts of criminal breach of trust linked to the SRC scandal by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in July 2020.
Following the verdict, he was imposed with 12 years of jail time and a fine of RM210 million.
Najib is now serving his prison sentence in Kajang Prison.
READ MORE: Najib Is Going To Jail After Failing His Final Appeal
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