Lingam jailed six months

> Ex-lawyer convicted of saying bench plagiarised judgment

KUALA LUMPUR: Former lawyer V. K. Lingam ( pix) was sentenced to six months’ jail by the Federal Court yesterday for contempt for claiming that the bench had plagiarised its judgment in a commercial case.

Justice Tan Sri Abu Samah Nordin, who chaired the five-man bench, read out the unanimous judgment but Lingam was not present.

“A warrant of committal will be issued and the sentence will proceed forthwith,” he was quoted as saying when delivering the ruling.

Earlier, Lingam applied to disqualify six judges from hearing his case on grounds of bias.

They are Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar, Abu Samah, Tan Sri Ramli Ali, Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi and Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha. Suriyadi has since retired.

The charge dates back to 2012 and the case has taken this long due to Lingam’s repeated absence from proceedings for a variety of reasons, mainly medical.

The contempt case came about after Lingam appeared for clients, consisting of family members, in a civil suit.

Following a Federal Court decision in 2012 that ruled against his clients, Lingam filed a review of that ruling on grounds that the judgment was plagiarised.

Lingam, the 24 family members and another lawyer, T. C. Nayagam, were charged with contempt.

The family members were each fined RM100,000 while Nayagam was fined RM150,000 after they pleaded guilty to the charge.

In September, the Federal Court ordered Lingam to attend hearings after rejecting the veracity of the medical report used to justify his absence.

Lingam was barred from practice for professional misconduct in 2015.