Petaling Jaya (The Star/ANN) - DAP chairman Karpal Singh has accused a retired Singaporean judge of lying to clear the air on an alleged plagiarism case involving a Malaysian Court of Appeal judge.
Karpal claimed that G.P. Selvam's letter to Malaysian Chief Justice Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria did not "contain the truth", as it contradicted his statement published in the Singapore Straits Times more than a decade ago.
"A Royal Commission of Inquiry should be set up to get to the truth," he told a press conference yesterday.
Karpal said this in response to Selvam's letter to Arifin dated Nov 2 last year, clarifying that there was no cause to complain about plagiarism against a Malaysian judge.
With the clarification provided by Selvam, the Chief Justice had called on all quarters to study both judgments first and refrain from making baseless allegations.
"I call upon the Chief Justice to reappraise the position in view of Selvam having clearly lied in the letter," alleged Karpal.
Karpal also challenged Selvam to deny his statement published in the Singapore Straits Times on 18 March 2000.
In the article, Selvam was quoted as saying that a Malaysian judge had obtained a copy of his judgment through a lawyer, and "copied chunks from me without acknowledging".
Karpal also pointed out that Selvam was quoted as saying that the Malaysian judge had backdated his judgments "so that people will think I copied from him".