Malaysia's former chief judge took a family vacation in New Zealand with a prominent lawyer suspected of using his political influence to rig senior judicial appointments, a public inquiry was told Friday.
The evidence presented against Eusoff Chin, the Chief Justice of Malaysia between 1994 and 2000, could provide a damning indictment of the country's judiciary, which has been accused of promoting unusually cozy friendships among judges, politicians and lawyers.
Lawyers say the controversy raises questions about whether high-level judicial corruption has tainted key court verdicts stretching back more than a decade.
A visibly uncomfortable Eusoff was grilled for nearly an hour while presenting his testimony to the government inquiry into a secretly recorded video that apparently showed a man believed to be V.K. Lingam, a top private lawyer, boasting about his influence over senior judges and politicians.
Responding tersely to questions in a dramatic session in a Kuala Lumpur courtroom, Eusoff denied he had an improper relationship with Lingam even though the inquiry was shown a photograph of them posing together in New Zealand during a vacation in 1994.
"Can't remember," he said repeatedly when questioned by Ranjit Singh, a lawyer for the Bar Council, which is helping the five-member panel conduct the inquiry.
Eusoff claimed he knew Lingam only professionally. Their relationship was "normal, nothing more," he said.
His holiday encounter with Lingam became known in the late 1990s, but government officials had said there was no evidence of misconduct.
Eusoff claimed he "bumped into" Lingam at Singapore's airport en route to New Zealand in 1994. He said it was "out of my control" when Lingam chose to "tag along" with him and his family.
The inquiry was shown Eusoff's weeklong itinerary in various locations in New Zealand _ with Eusoff acknowledging that Lingam traveled with him for much of the time and shared the cost of van transportation.
Eusoff protested questions pressing him for explanations as "irrelevant," and later agreed to the inquiry panel's proposal for him to engage a lawyer before answering further questions.
The video scandal broke in September, when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim leaked the clip recorded in late 2001. It showed a man, who can be clearly identified as Lingam, speaking on a mobile phone about his relationship with Eusoff.
The man in the video claimed he had extremely close ties with Eusoff and cooperated with Eusoff to ensure certain people became judges, and hinted that Eusoff helped him win cases.
"No," Eusoff said, when asked whether he spoke with Lingam about the appointment and promotion of judges mentioned by the man in the video.
In the clip, the man identifies the person on the other end of the phone connection as Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who was Malaysia's No. 3 judge at the time. He is heard discussing plans to elevate Ahmad Fairuz to the chief's justice post with the help of a tycoon and a politician.
Ahmad Fairuz went on to become Malaysia's chief judge in 2003 and retired last year.
The inquiry was expected to hear testimony next week from Lingam and Ahmad Fairuz.
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