Gani Patail should make public the full list of prosecutions thrown out of court without defence being called since he became AG in 2002 and the reason for each botched prosecution

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Media Statement (2) 
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Petaling Jaya, Sunday) : Datuk Stanley Isaacs said when he was  head of prosecutions in the Attorney-General�s Chambers between 1991 and 1994, the benchmark set by  the then Attorney General, Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman was at least a 90 per cent likelihood of securing a conviction.

He told the New Straits Times that after Abu Talib, the new AG (the late Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah 1994-2000) called for 100 per cent certainty of evidence before prosecution is instituted.

With 90 per cent and later 100 per cent certainty of evidence, how could  high-profile murder cases be thrown out of court because of the failure to establish a prima facie case  and without defence being called at the end of prosecution?

The Attorney-General�s Chambers cannot disclaim responsibility when  high-profile murder cases are thrown out of court without defence being called, even if this is the result of sloppy and unprofessional police investigations  as the Attorney-General�s Chambers would have made the decision that police investigations had been  satisfactory enough  to proceed with the prosecution.

The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail should come clean and make public the full list of prosecutions which had been thrown out of court without defence being called since his appointment in 2002, giving reasons for each botched investigation.

(28/1/2007)