SHAH ALAM - Lawyers representing Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin say that a client's documents are protected by legal privilege and cannot be confiscated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
This statement comes in response to a recent MACC raid at the lawyers' office representing the former premier.
"Twelve MACC officers came to our office and demanded they search our office premises and seize documents.
"We told the MACC officers of the legal sanctity of a law office where clients’ documents are legally privileged and cannot be seized by the MACC as stipulated in Section 46 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009,” Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership said in a statement as reported by Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
Section 46(2) stipulates that lawyers were not obligated to surrender privileged documents intended for use in ongoing proceedings.
The law firm added that MACC officers were unable to access any client documents.
"Accordingly, the MACC officers had no access to any of our clients’ documents.
"We are committed to preventing any form of abuse, exploitation, or coercion by any authority in the course of our acting for our clients.
"The rakyat (people) has the right to legal representation, and this universal principle cannot be ignored,” the law firm was quoted as saying.
It was also reported that more than ten MACC officers participated in the raid, which MACC characterised as a follow-up visit related to an ongoing investigation.
MACC also attempted to raid the firm of Chetan Jethwani & Co., which also represents Muhyiddin.
The lead counsel, Rosli, was handling a defamation suit on behalf of Muhyiddin against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, stemming from remarks about Felda's waiver of debts owed by land settlers.
He was previously the lead counsel for 1MDB, a government investment company embroiled in a significant financial scandal that led to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's imprisonment on embezzlement, corruption, and abuse of power charges.
Rosli was also involved in a defamation suit against former Umno Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam and others over allegations of large commissions related to a settlement of the government's case against Goldman Sachs and AmBank regarding 1MDB.