00:00The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Tuesday dismissed the Attorney General's Chamber's
00:07contempt bid against former UMNO Information Chief Isham Jalil.
00:12Justice K. Munyandi ruled that Isham's public statements regarding
00:16Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1MDB and SRC cases did not amount to contempt of court.
00:22Basically, what the Leonard Judge decided today is that in a matter of contempt like this,
00:31it must be proven that the comment made by Isham or by anybody for that matter
00:37runs the real risk of interfering with the administration of justice.
00:44And that, the Leonard Judge find that whatever was commented by N.J. Isham
00:48does not have a real risk of interfering with the administration of justice.
00:53Both cases that he commented on, 1MDB and SRC have gone on properly and it has been decided
00:59properly.
01:02And the Leonard Judge is also opinion that
01:04the best way for judges for the court to answer criticism
01:11is to come up with a very good and detailed judgment
01:15so that people understand what they are doing
01:19and why they are doing the ground of their decision
01:23so that all the attacks against the judiciary
01:30could be avoided just by reading the judgment.
01:35So, the Leonard Judge took a very modern approach
01:39in saying that the freedom of speech
01:43to comment on matters in court
01:46must be also balanced
01:48against the interference of justice.
01:52But in this case,
01:54his lordship, he saw the opinion
01:56that the comment made by N.J. Isham
01:58does not cross that line.
02:00So, he did not find it contemptuous.
02:03The AGC filed the contempt application
02:06on December 28, 2023
02:09following Isham's remarks
02:11in an interview titled
02:13Town Hall for Justice
02:15Keadilan Sebenarnya Untuk Siapa
02:18In his remarks,
02:20Isham had criticised the corruption trial
02:22and appeal involving his former boss
02:24Datuk Seri Najib Razak
02:26in relation to the One Malaysia Development Berhad
02:29and SRC International Sendirian Berhad cases.
02:32The recorded interview
02:34which discussed the trial
02:35and appeal proceedings
02:36in the SRC and 1MDB cases
02:39was posted on the Facebook page
02:41of the Malaya Post
02:43on September 30, 2023.
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