KUALA Lumpur police are investigating the Malaysian Bar’s walk for judicial independence this morning and will be calling in participants to have their statements recorded.

Dang Wangi police chief Noor Delhan Yahaya said in a statement that an investigation paper has been opened under section 15(3) of the Peaceful Assembly Act and the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within Infected Local Areas) (National Recovery Plan) (Transition Phase to Endemic) Act 1988.

“At about 9am this morning, in the car park in Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur, a gathering of some 200 members of the Bar took part in the Walk for Judicial Independence.

“Participants will be called in to have their statement recorded to assist the police in the investigation soon,” Dellhan said.

More than 300 lawyers who took part in the brief gathering were earlier prevented by police from marching to Parliament to deliver a memorandum to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Mas Ermieyati Samsudin then came to Padang Merbok to accept the memorandum on behalf of the prime minister.

The assembly was to protest against the interference with the independence of the judiciary, and breaches of the fundamental principle of separation of powers.

This included the MACC’s criminal probe into Court of Appeal judge Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, who became the subject of the investigation following a story on the Malaysia Today blog that he had unexplained funds in his account.

Nazlan presided over the trial of former prime minister Nazir Razak and found him guilty of corruption for the misappropriation of SRC International funds in July 2020, when he was then a High Court judge.

The Bar’s assembly today had been one of the resolutions passed at its extraordinary general meeting on May 27. – June 17, 2022.