Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram was not pressured to leave Messrs Soo Thien Ming & Nashrah, it was a 'friendly arrangement', the law firm said in a statement. – The Malaysian Insider pic, January 11, 2015.
The departure of Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram as consultant from Messrs. Soo Thien Ming & Nashrah in the midst of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy appeal was a coincidence, the law firm said today, denying that they were pressured to ask the retired judge to leave.
"No authority or any organisation has pressured our firm in whatever way. We did not pressure the consultant. It was a friendly arrangement," the firm said in a statement.
It said the firm and the consultant still worked together in cases where there was no conflict of interest in legal matters or clients.
The firm also said it took offence at the disparaging "cold feet" remarks in an article as they were a professional firm and not involved with any political party, referring to The Malaysian Insider report on Friday that Sri Ram was forced to leave the establishment in the midst of Anwar’s appeal hearing.
The report which quoted a source said it was unclear whether Sri Ram was ordered to pack off due to outside pressure applied to the firm as he was appearing for Anwar in a high-profile case or the partners had cold feet seeing their consultant having a direct role in the case.
The former Federal Court judge joined the legal firm soon after retiring from the bench in 2010.
The Malaysian Insider had earlier made attempts to contact managing partner Soo Thien Ming for his response but could not be reached as he was overseas.
Anwar's appeal is the first case that Sri Ram, since retiring as judge, handled and completed after eight days of submission before a five-man bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria.
In early March last year, the Court of Appeal convicted Anwar on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008.
He was sentenced to five years' jail, but the court granted a stay on the sentence, pending his appeal to the Federal Court.
Arifin told reporters yesterday after opening the legal year that the appeal decision is expected to be delivered soon.
The opposition leader's political career as an MP will end if the Federal Court upholds the appellate court’s decision, as he will be disqualified from office if fined more than RM2,000 or jailed more than year.
- TMI
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