Congratulations to Solicitor-General (SG) Datuk Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh, who will be the new Attorney-General (AG) on 6th September 2023.
His appointment as AGC needs a firm hand to steady the chambers and regain its reputation, as many high-profile corruption cases have not been found guilty. The Attorney General Chamber (AGC) is the highest respected office to prosecute and prove criminals if the leaders have offended the law while in office.
He will replace the outgoing Tan Sri Idris Harun. He is the most qualified candidate within the Attorney General Chambers (AGC), and his appointment would allow for a smooth transition.
He is said to command respect and is seen as firm in dealing with them. Terrirudin, 55, became the SG in March 2022. He had enough time to learn the ropes of handling the AGC. Besides, he has enough years to steer the AGC into becoming a world-class institution.
Will the new AGC require consulting lawyers from the private sector to assist the prosecution?
After the 2018 General Elections, the AGC’s office under Tan Sri Tommy Thomas used several top private sector lawyers to prosecute former Prime Minister Najib Razak and succeeded. The new AG should review the assistance of consulting lawyers to act as prosecutors in the Government’s battle against corruption.
"The Attorney General's Chambers also emphasises that the decision to charge or drop charges against any individual is based on evidence and facts resulting from investigations," said Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform).
She also propagated that the government would undertake a comprehensive empirical study within one year before finalising the proposed separation of powers between the AG and the public prosecutor.
Many Malaysian's questions are: What is happening to our new unity Government for the following court cases?
On 28 August 2023, Najib and Arul Kanda were acquitted because the prosecution failed to file court papers within the deadline to continue the appeal.
- Legal experts believe that discharging and acquitting Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin of four charges of abuse of power linked to the Jana Wibawa programme does not mean he did not commit any offence. (NST 16th August 2023)
- AGC dropped the lead prosecutor in a corruption case involving Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid after she applied for early retirement.
- The Attorney-General dropped 16 high-profile cases between 2018 and 2023, said Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said. In a Parliamentary written reply, she explained that Article 145 (3) of the Federal Constitution gives the Attorney General the discretion to decide whether to institute, conduct, or discontinue any proceedings for an offence. (The Star 15th June 2023)
- “In December 2020, the Kuala Lumpur High Court convicted Tengku Adnan of accepting an RM2 million bribe during his capacity as the Federal Territories Minister. The Court of Appeal then quashed the conviction in a 2-1 majority decision,2 and the prosecution had filed an appeal to the Federal Court against the acquittal in July 2021. We are therefore perturbed by the Attorney General’s Chambers’ purported decision to withdraw the appeal, considering that the Court of Appeal’s decision was not unanimous,” A.G. Kalidas, president of the Malaysian Bar, said in a statement on 19th November 2021.
- The Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) has assured Malaysians that its prosecutors will continue to put up an intense fight in courts even though the mandatory death penalty for specific laws has been abolished. “It does not mean the AGC will change how it prosecutes cases and go soft,” said Attorney General Tan Sri Idrus Harun. He said the AGC’s decision to prosecute and how cases are conducted is based on the facts and available evidence of each case by the relevant applicable laws. (The Star 5th July 2023)
- On 28th August 2023, the prosecution had not filed the document within the deadline required to continue with its appeal against the High Court’s acquittal of former prime minister Najib and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy in the trial over the alleged tampering of a government audit report on 1MDB.
As reported in the New Straits Times, Arul Kanda’s lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan, confirmed that the prosecution had not filed the document at the Court of Appeal against the acquittals of both Najib and Arul Kanda. The case will be brought up again in the Court of Appeal on August 30.
“The matter is now fixed for case management on 30th August for the court to decide whether the matter should after that be fixed for case management before the deputy registrar or for mention before the panel of the Court of Appeal.”
Legal experts said the acquittal was merely due to a defective charge. However, a continuous defective charge up to the Federal Court could bar prosecutors from charging the former prime minister under the same offence again.
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, associate professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns going undercover as a beggar, security guard, blind man, disabled salesman and Member of Parliament.
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