Former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim has sung praises of senior lawyer Americk Sidhu, counsel for the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam and now United States-based businessman Charles Suresh Morais in the murder of DPP Anthony Kevin Morais.
In a blog posting today, Zaid noted there are many lawyers in the country but the kind he admires most is embodied in a person like Americk, whom he noted was willing to represent unpopular causes and unpopular clients.
“He has taken on some of these cases pro bono, like for P Balasubramaniam’s wife and children, because he fights for justice. He is fearless, like other well-known litigators in the country.
“Now Charles has retained Americk. I am sure if Clare Rewcastle-Brown of the Sarawak Report ever requires legal representation here, she will choose Americk too. The people he represents have serious grievances - he would not waste his time representing them otherwise,” Zaid said in his blog.
Wishing Americk, who celebrates his 59th birthday today, Zaid said he got to know of the lawyer when he acted for the late private investigator Balasubramaniam, better known as PI Bala, who at that time was in the service of political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.
“I was initially sceptical of Bala, especially when he retracted his first statutory declaration when he was offered money.
“Later, I got to know the facts better from Bala and Americk, and it was clear as day that the private investigator had been forced to leave the country with his family. Money was incidental to the arrangement.
“This is how powerful people can move you out of the country if they want to,” Zaid said, adding that having a statutory declaration changed is nothing to such people because money is not an issue.
SDs because people do not trust police
And now, with the SD from Charles, Zaid hypothesised that the reason the country is having so many SDs now is because the people no longer trust the police to carry out a fair investigation into matters involving VVIPs.
“Rightly or wrongly, people feel they need to use an SD to publicise the matter first as that’s their protection. Balasubramaniam gave lengthy statements to the police, both here and in Bangkok, but what happened to his complaints?
“Nothing. I am sure Charles Morais is taking the SD route for the same reason, and who can blame him?” he said.
Zaid also described the action of inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar in sending the police to interrogate Americk as a form of harassment that should not have been carried out by the top police officer.
He further described the behaviour of Khalid and attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali as like being a personal aide to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, and he wished Americk would persevere in all this and that “may the truth be with you”.
