KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 (AFP) - More than 100 lawyers Friday urged Malaysian legal authorities to drop a sedition charge against advocate Karpal Singh over comments he made in court while defending ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
The prosecution of a lawyer for comments in court is unprecedented in the Commonwealth of former British colonies and will cause "irreparable injury to justice," the 109 lawyers say in a resolution to the Bar Council.
The council, representing all 8,000 lawyers in Malaysia, is meeting March 18 to debate the charge against Karpal, who is also deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party.
He was one of five opposition figures charged in January and bailed pending trial, in an operation widely criticised overseas. Sedition is punishable by up to three years' jail.
The resolution, dated Friday and obtained by AFP, says it is "an established and entrenched principle and rule of law" in the Commonwealth and in Common Law that lawyers enjoy absolute privilege for all statements during legal proceedings.
"It is not merely a right but the duty of advcoates to speak out fearlessly in a court of law," it says.
The resolution urges the attorney-general to drop the charge against Karpal, saying he would be setting "a dangerous and unfair precedent" if he goes ahead.
It calls on him and the government to respect "the rights of an independent bar and an independent legal profession."
The Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee has submitted a similar resolution. Lawyers say the Bar Council is expected overwhelmingly to support the calls.
P. Uthayakumar, one of the joint proposers of the resolution, told AFP the Karpal prosecution "opens the floodgates" for civil and criminal suits against lawyers. "A lot of lawyers feel very strongly about it."
He said that even a lawyer who alleged in cross-examination that a witness was lying could face a libel action should legal privilege be lost.
Karpal's trial has been fixed for July 18. He is alleged to have breached the sedition act with his comments last September during Anwar's sodomy trial, about possible attempts to poison his client with arsenic.
Karpal's reported comments were: "It could well be that someone out there wants to get rid of him ... even to the extent of murder. I suspect that people in high places are responsible for the situation."
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described the poisoning charges as ridiculous. A medical inquiry found that Anwar was not suffering from "acute or chronic" arsenic poisoning at the time it conducted its tests.
Anwar, sacked by Mahathir in September 1998, is still on trial for sodomy, a charge punishable by up to 20 years.
He is already serving a six-year jail term for abusing his powers when deputy premier to quash allegations of sexual misconduct. The appeal against that conviction ended Thursday, with judges postponing their decision