[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 14 Sep 1999
Time: 02:26:26
Remote User: -
Malaysian PM shrugs off Clinton concern at jailing of journalist
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (AFP) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has taken a swipe at US justice while dismissing the concerns of US President Bill Clinton at the jailing of a Canadian journalist here, reports said Tuesday. "He is free to make that statement," The Sun daily quoted Mahathir saying after the White House issued a statement saying Clinton was "deeply concerned" about the imprisonment of Murray Hiebert in Malaysia.
"Putting a journalist in jail for doing his job undermines the press freedoms that play such a critical role in building a democratic society," the White House statement said.
Mahathir said Clinton was entitled to his opinion and he did not take it as interference.
"If he were to send troops here to release Hiebert, then I will call that interference. He hasn't done that. I think he is entitled to his opinion and I to mine," he said.
Hiebert, 50, a correspondent with Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review, began a six-week prison sentence on Saturday after losing an appeal against a contempt of court charge.
Mahathir defended the verdict, saying Malaysian judges were independent and free to decide, while the "American habit" of arresting and bringing foreign citizens to the United States for trial was against international law.
"I don't think that arresting (former Panama president) Noreiga to bring him to the US to be tried under a law which Noriega is normally not subjected to is fair either," he said, adding he also "disliked the continous bombing of Iraq."
Hiebert was found guilty by the High Court in May 1997 over an article headlined "See you in court," which discussed the merits of a pending suit filed by the wife of a Court of Appeal judge against the International School of Kuala Lumpur for dropping her son from the debating team.
The Appeal Court, in its judgment published Tuesday, held that the Hiebert chose to "venture periously" into contemptous areas in his report on the suit.
It said Hiebert "damaged the integrity and dignity" of the High Court in his report which was described as "unfair and unwarranted."
The Appeal Court noted that his wife was at the time working with the school making it "impossible for any ordinary person to believe he did not have the deliberate intention to commit contempt of court."
However, the Court said it cut Hiebert's jail term from three months to six weeks, as he regretted his action and was a first offender.
The journalist is expected to serve only a month, with a one-third remission, lawyers said.