Friday June 13, 2008

Dr Mahathir welcomes probe into claims that he threatened judges

LANGKAWI: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the police can arrest him if they have evidence on allegations that he had threatened judges.

“I have no power now. If they want to investigate, okay, fine. I can face it.

“If I am wrong, okay, they can arrest me,” he said at the Langkawi Airport here yesterday.

“They can investigate me. I want to know the truth,” he said.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a police report lodged against him by DAP chairman Karpal Singh following High Court Judge Datuk Ian Chin’s claim that the former premier had threatened to remove judges by referring them to a tribunal.

Justice Chin alleged that Dr Mahathir had issued a thinly veiled threat to judges during a Judges Conference on April 24, 1997.

He said he would give a press conference today on what Justice Chin had brought up.

Dr Mahathir had said in his blog that he was curious about what Justice Chin considered as “veiled threat”.

In Kuala Lumpur, former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he could not remember speaking at any “boot camp” for judges and judicial officers in 1997.

“I addressed the Asean Law Conference in 1995 but I can’t recall attending any conference involving judges,” he said.