00:00Meanwhile, Opposition Senator Faris al-Rawi, senior counsel, points to the seriousness of
00:04the allegations made by Prime Minister Kamala Basad-Basasa against two members of the independent
00:10bench in the Senate. He tells us, based on the law, it is tantamount to criminality.
00:16There's a very important piece of law called the Houses of Representatives,
00:21Chapter 202. It's an actual law. In Section 10, it says that it is a criminal offense.
00:28Let me repeat that. It is a criminal offense to intimidate someone in the performance of
00:34their duties. So this is not a simple position. When the Prime Minister says, as a senior counsel,
00:42as an elder in the political arena, that somebody has attempted to sell their votes, that is a crime
00:50not only in the fact that you're attempting to bribe someone, etc. It is also a crime
00:58under the Houses of Parliament Legislation, Chapter 202. And it is a crime or it is an
01:04infringement of the Integrity in Public Life Act, which says in Section 29 that you ought not to
01:08use your office for private gain or other positions.
01:12Al-Rawi says he would have taken no issue with the Prime Minister expressing her strong disappointment
01:17on the position adopted by the independent bench concerning the soons of special operations bill.
01:23But he states that the allegations made are not a simple matter, as he defended the reason for the
01:29opposition bringing a motion of privilege to the Senate.
01:33A senior counsel who is the Prime Minister who served as the Attorney General of this country
01:37cannot say I'm not telling you because it is also defamatory because there's a class of people
01:45called the independent senators and you're saying they, two of that number, are guilty of some of
01:50the most horrible crimes. And that has been repeated outside. It is, in fact, defamatory as well.
01:57So this is not just a canal. There's a legitimate aim in pursuing measures like this.
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