Is Tommy Thomas saying judges are crooks?

(Malaysiakini) – Najib Razak has asked Tommy Thomas to clarify what he meant when he said Dr Mahathir Mohamad “used the courts” to stop his then deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, from succeeding him as prime minister in the late 1990s.

On Wednesday, China Press published an interview with the former attorney-general, where he also claimed Anwar was imprisoned by Mahathir as the latter “felt threatened by him”.

“What is Tommy saying?” asked Najib in a Facebook post.

“Is he saying that Mahathir liked to manipulate the judicial system and the courts to prey on his political enemies? Please clarify, Tommy.”

Thomas was appointed AG by Mahathir in 2018 after Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government and remained in the post until March 2020, when the government collapsed.

Thomas was also reported as saying that he thought Anwar would eventually take over as prime minister from Mahathir, only for him to be sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 before being charged and imprisoned for alleged sodomy and corruption.

“Mahathir, in particular, felt threatened by him (Anwar) and used the courts to stop him,” he said, according to the Chinese language daily.

Thomas said, however, that despite having served time in jail, Anwar still had no “automatic right to become the prime minister”.