Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has remained tight-lipped about the government's reaction to a lawsuit filed by French prosecutors over alleged kickbacks on Malaysia's purchase of Scorpene submarines.

Asked whether the government, which is implicated in the case, would deploy someone for the defence, Muhyiddin said, " I don't want to comment on that."

NONE "No comment," he added.

Local human rights NGO Suaram has filed a civil suit with the French courts to look into the government's purchase of the submarines, in which kickbacks - which are illegal in France - running into millions of ringgit were said to have been paid.

Suaram has also proposed a number of witnesses the courts could subpoena, including Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was deputy prime minister and defence minister at the time the purchase was sealed and current Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had earlier insisted that the French courts have no jurisdiction to summon Malaysians to testify in the ongoing inquiry.

NONE However, French lawyer Joseph Breham ( left ) rebutted Zahid’s statement yesterday, saying that the French courts have jurisdiction over anyone involved in an inquiry.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar said the choice was Zahid’s.

“But as long as there is no court order to compel his presence (in the Paris court) and as long as there is no legal advice from the Defence Ministry that a ministry representative needs to testify, I think his stand is correct,” said Khairy.

He said this when asked by reporters at a press conference after launching the Auto Forum 2012 in Kuala Lumpur today.

Bangladeshi workers 'not tortured’

On another matter, Muhyiddin slammed Tenaganita head Irene Fernandez as unpatriotic for her persistence in questioning the government’s policy on migrant workers.

NONE Commenting on Fernandez’s ( right ) statement on the plight of Bangladeshi workers recently, Muhyiddin said a Bangladeshi minister met him yesterday and asked for a review of the freeze on Bangladeshi workers to be sent here.

“You can ask the Bangladeshis. If they want to go back, they can go back. But I believe that 100 percent of them will not agree with what Fernandez had said.

“They come here to seek a living, they are not being tortured,” he said.

He condemned Fernandez for basing her statement on rare incidents and labelled her as an “immoral” activist.