MACC denies harassing 2 lawyers
Published on: Tuesday, June 11, 2024
By:
FMT, Faisal Asyraf
MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said the agency’s investigation against lawyers Lai Chee Hoe (centre) and Irwin Lo does not concern the ‘public’s right to legal representation’.
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has denied claims by two lawyers that they were harassed in the course of representing their client.
At a press conference today, Lai Chee Hoe and Irwin Lo cried foul, saying they were investigated in their capacity as lawyers for a building’s management committee in a strata management case.
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Lai said he was remanded by MACC for three days from June 6.
He claimed an MACC investigating officer told him they were conducting a probe into a member of the management committee and that he was detained because he represented the committee in its civil suit.
Lo said MACC recorded his statement on June 5 and asked him to provide several documents related to the case he was handling with Lai.
Speaking to FMT, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki vehemently denied the accusations and accused the duo of defaming the anti-graft body at the press conference.
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Azam said the investigation was into the management and maintenance accounts maintained by the committee and did not concern their capacity as lawyers for any client.
“This is not an issue of MACC interfering with the public’s rights to legal representation.”
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Azam confirmed that Lai was detained and remanded as part of investigations into the case, while Lo had his statement taken to assist in the probe.
At the press conference, organised by Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), Lai claimed MACC imposed three conditions on his release from remand.
He claimed he was told to withdraw from representing the management committee.
Lai also claimed that MACC officers told him not to attend the service apartment’s annual general meeting and not to organise a media conference to detail his claim.
Meanwhile, LFL adviser Zaid Malek said MACC has no power to demand that lawyers provide them with documents from cases they are handling.
“Lawyers must be free to advise their clients and the public must be confident that they are able to engage lawyers who can represent them without fear or intimidation,” he said.
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