Bar Council hits out at Rafizi for denigrating legal profession

The Malaysian Bar has reprimanded PKR's Rafizi Ramli for making disparaging remarks about the legal profession after the economy minister attacked the defence lawyer of an Israeli-French national charged with illegal possession of firearms.

"The Malaysian Bar calls all parties to cease the mischaracterisation and the insinuation of lawyers as being unethical, while in the course of conducting their regular duties.

"Lawyers should be able to provide their services without fear or favour, and free of baseless prejudices," said its president Mohamad Ezri Abdul Wahab.

It said Rafizi's comments directed at lawyer Naran Singh Asa Singh for discharging his legal duties to an accused person perpetuated a widely held stigma against lawyers.

"His comments also strike at a deeper issue, which concerns the concept of due process and the need to strike the right balance between the freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial," the statement added.

"Lawyers are seen as providing their services to the highest bidder, and will do everything within their means to get their clients off the hook. Such a perception of the nature of legal work amounts to a misunderstanding of what lawyers actually do."

Naran, the lawyer for Shalom Avitan, who had entered Malaysia on a French passport before being arrested for possessing firearms, was named by Rafizi at a Pakatan Harapan event during the recent Sungai Bakap by-election campaign.

"Who is the lawyer of an Israeli citizen charged with attempted murder with a pistol? His name is Datuk Naran Singh," Rafizi had said, in a bid to counter widespread criticism against the government over its decision to sell shares in an airport consortium to a company owned by Israeli-linked fund manager BlackRock. "The lawyer of the Israeli who came with guns to cause trouble in Malaysia is not from PKR, not from Umno, not from DAP, but from PN."

The Bar said while it defends free speech, it must not come "at the cost of prejudicing one’s right to a fair trial".

"By commenting on the lawyer and his foreign client, Rafizi has prematurely called the innocence of the client into question before the case has been disposed of by the courts."

it said the constitutional right to legal representation means that every person who appears in court is guaranteed the services of a lawyer.

It also cited the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules 1978, obliging lawyers to render services to a client if they are proficient in that area of law, adding that to reject a client who needs legal representation would be to deny him the right to a fair trial.

"The fact that the accused in this situation is a foreigner should not deprive him of legal representation.

"The lawyer named by Rafizi Ramli is merely discharging his duty by providing a voice for his client before the courts of Malaysia," said Ezri.

Earlier, MalaysiaNow had quoted Naran as saying that Rafizi showed he was ignorant while trying to score political points.

"By mentioning about my client, it is sub judice because the case is in court. How can he say that (the defendant) killed people? He can be cited for contempt of court," Naran said.

Correcting Rafizi, Naran said that his client was charged with possession of firearms and not murder as Rafizi had claimed, adding that the PKR deputy president was ignorant of the facts of the case and did not know the rights of an accused.

"He does not understand that an accused has the basic right to appoint a lawyer and that he is innocent until proven guilty.

"How can you be the minister for economy? This is why our country's economy is going downhill every day," said Naran.