Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir quizzed in judicial probe

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian anti-corruption officials have interviewed former prime minister Mahathir Muhammad as part of their investigation into a scandal over judicial appointments. Three officials had come to interview him on Friday for about an hour. He did not reveal the questions or his answers. “The anti-corruption agency interviewed me and asked me questions and I answered them,” the 82-year-old, who retired as leader in late 2003, told reporters. The government has ordered a royal commission of inquiry into allegations that a lawyer with connections to government played a role in influencing judicial appointments. It followed the release in September by opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim of a video said to have been recorded in 2002 and purporting to show the lawyer boasting to a judge over the phone of his ability to influence appointments. In Malaysia, the king makes judicial appointments on the advice of the prime minister, though the Malaysian Bar Council has been lobbying for years for a special commission to handle the appointment of judges, free from politics. Mahathir has always denied he sought to interfere in the judicial process during his rule, though Malaysian justice has been dogged since the late 1980s by the perception that it is not free from government interference. Asked on Saturday for his criteria in appointing judges, Mahathir said he had only considered their judicial merits. “Obviously when you promote people, you have to look into their qualifications, also their background and performance when they were magistrates,” he said after launching a book at his think-tank in the administrative capital of Putrajaya. reuters