THE police today recorded a statement from Court of Appeal judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer over his explosive affidavit on judicial misconduct involving unnamed top judges.

Two police officers met the judge at his chambers in Putrajaya’s Palace of Justice at 9am and completed their task at 10.15am.

This was a follow up to a police report lodged by the Federal Court chief registrar on February 15 regarding the judge’s affidavit.

Hamid’s lawyers, Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Joy Appukuttan, were present during the sessions with the cops.

It is learned that Hamid had declined to give any details of the alleged judicial misconduct as he would only do so before a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) that the government had agreed to set up.

Last week, the judge similarly refused to give a statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

The MACC met Hamid in his chambers on February 18 to seek clarification on the affidavit.

“But no statement was recorded. Hamid has suggested that a special task force be set up to see to the forming of an RCI.

“The MACC will first study the affidavit and continue investigations to see if there is a basis to look into the matter for corruption and abuse of power under the MACC Act,” the anti-graft agency had said in a statement.

On February 14, Hamid had said in his affidavit that members of the judiciary had conspired to defraud the government.

The affidavit was in support of lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo’s application to declare that the chief justice failed to defend the integrity and credibility of the judiciary over two alleged incidences of judicial interference.

Hamid had said certain top Federal Court judges had aided private parties to defraud the government.

He had also said there were other instances of top judges working in favour of the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

Hamid, who is still a sitting judge, had repeatedly said in his affidavit that an RCI must investigate the allegations.

The government has since agreed to establish the RCI to look into the allegations. – February 27, 2019