In a joint statement, the past presidents referred to the incidents as “a stain on the administration of justice”, urging the AG to take swift action and ensure “the persons involved in these heinous acts face the full force of the law”.
“If left unchecked, they will have a corrosive effect on the administration of justice.”
The statement was signed by Zainur Zakaria, Mah Weng Kwai, Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, Yeo Yang Poh, Ambiga Sreenevasan, Lim Chee Wee, Steven Thiru and George Varughese.
They were referring to two separate court judgments linked to former prime minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor which were published in Malaysia Today, a portal run by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.
The leaked documents, they said, were a clear attempt to undermine confidence in the judiciary and could be seen as a means to threaten judges.
Previously, the chief registrar’s office of the Federal Court dismissed the leaked judgment of Najib’s appeal as an “unfinalised draft”.
Police, meanwhile, have called on the public to lodge reports on the alleged leak of a court ruling in Rosmah’s corruption trial involving a Sarawak solar project worth RM1.25 billion.
The group of former Bar presidents also rubbished previous bribery allegations made by Najib against former High Court judge Nazlan Ghazali, pointing out that Najib himself withdrew the charge in an affidavit filed on Aug 9.
“It is difficult to find a greater travesty occasioned upon the trial judge that in our view has criminal consequences,” the group said, adding that it was a baseless assault on Nazlan and the entire judiciary.
“The AG must especially appreciate the ramifications of such assaults on the judiciary, having been a former Federal Court judge himself. We trust he will act on these false allegations.”
The group also expressed its full support for incumbent president, Karen Cheah, in her defence of the independence of the judiciary.
“We stand with the Malaysian Bar which will continue to defend the brave judges for upholding their oath of office without fear or favour.”