8th June 1997

Ironies of the ideal case

By Mudliyar

“Oh Son! Poor Son!
Media hung you in the closet, 
and I’m feelin’ so sad”

(With apologies to Arthur L. Kopit, One Act psuedo classical tragifarce in a bastard French Tradition)

Time: Present.

Place: Hulftsdorp Hill, Law Library, Canteen, AG’s Department, Cocktail circuits etc. etc

Baneetha( Lady lawyer): How handsome that Chauhan is, no! What a shame that these people are trying to implicate that sweet chap with murder. I went to court specially to see him.

Videshini( Lady lawyer): Aiyo yes. He is sweeter than that actor Bimal, I went to court everyday to see Bimal when he was charged with molesting an old woman. After all that woman must be mad no, to complain against him for having done such a great favour for her.

Kamala (Law student): I also went to court every day, thinking that he will call and molest me, no luck.

Baneetha: If the government gives a pistol and licence why can’t you use it? What is the earthly use of having a gun if one cannot shoot. After all if 007 has the licence to kill, why can’t any one with a licensed pistol kill?

Lipatha (Lawyer): See how that parade was held. She threw even the President’s Counsel Pede Dayara from the room no! The Black Prince and that chap Hanuman were also thrown out.

Deen Nur: First of all how can she hold that parade?

Baneetha: Why can’t she? She is just like the other acting Magistrate no?

Deen Nur: Why she is a relative of Chauhan?

Kamala: So what is the harm? Hasn’t the AG told us what to do and what not to do when you handle a relative’s case?

Deen Nur: But the AG said it is O.K. to handle the file of a relative as long as he is going to make an order against him no?

Lipatha: But here she made an order throwing all the lawyers out from the parade.

Videshini: But AG is sweet no, I love that sweet smile. He is better than even the great Greek God Adonis. How can the Black Prince say that a parade cannot be held. Dam nonsense!

At the Cocktails

Diplomat from a Scandinavian country : What has happened to Sri Lankan Justice? My Colleague from Old Papua must be frothing wild. I am told that he ordered his tribe to do some head hunting and preserve it in the deep freezer. He will soon arrive in Old Papua and eat it. Then he can bring the spirit of the dead man in his stomach and bring the ghost to Sri Lanka … to hunt heads of killers.

Diplomat from the West: What has the learned professori got to say about this episode?

Professori : This incident clearly exhibits the commitment of this government to the preservation of human rights as found in the International Covenants for Civil and Political rights. Like the previous regime we did not misuse the media to orchestrate to the people the gruesome nature of the crime. Neither did we raid the residence of the top politicos of the opposition in search of Chauhan. We did not like the last government raid Konton restaurant in the guise of searching for Nilame’s and damage it. We deplore the mental torture practised by the previous regime on suspects. We cherish their independence and uphold the constitutional provisions that the man is presumed to be innocent until found guilty. So we gave the police time to record evidence of all the relevant witnesses and then if necessary arrest the suspect. No torture, No ice treatment, No Dharmachakkaras, No throwing people from the fourth floor. In fact, the suspect was treated like the complainant and the complainant was treated with circumspection and suspicion.

Diplomat from a Third World country: Bravo! Minister, Bravo! I invite you to our country to address our human rights committee.

Diplomat from the Scandinavian country: But professori, most of the things that you said happened during the last regime. I thought they happened during your government and just before the elections.

A scribe: Are you referring to the episode of some Nilame and some politico.?

Professori: Are you referring to the surrender of that Nilame. That was unseemly and improper and gave rise to an inference of conflict of interest which could have serious repercussions with regard to the public faith in the judicial process. I suggested that the code of conduct should be drawn up governing conduct of persons called upon to act in any judicial capacity. I proposed that with regard to Attorney-at-law, the court rules governing etiquette of members of the bar suitably amended making any offender liable for sanction.

Scribe: Are you taking the same view about the manner in which the parade was conducted and the black prince and his entourage were thrown from the precincts of the court?

Professori: I believe there has been much mischievous propaganda orchestrated by a certain section of the media. It was the Permanent Magistrate who appointed the most senior member to hold the parade. I believe she held the parade and assured the safety of the suspect, and that is our new vision and new deal. We have come a long away from the days the suspects were treated in the most inhuman manner. We hold the judiciary in high esteem. We will not let any one question the proprietary or the legality of the identification parade.

Scribe: But it was you who few months ago castigated the judiciary and this particular judge and said that the method of surrender at that time would lead to charges of collusion and conspiracy.

Professori: But in this matter the relationship is so far removed that it is the figment of imagination of an infertile mind. As has been already said it would be impossible to find any one who is not known or related to one another in this country. If judges were to postpone these cases that the parties are known to him the sacred system of administration of justice would collapse.

We have been inundated with complaints of laws delays and the police failing to investigate crime in time. We have shown the world that though we are in the third world we can beat the best investigators in New Scotland Yard or the FBI

Scribe: Surely this is the fastest investigation ever conducted. In other cases persons are kept in remand for three months and bail in an astronomical sum is ordered.

Professori: We must start somewhere.

At the A. G.’s Office

Pulle (A junior lawyer): I am trying to get bail in a case where there is no evidence against my man. The other man shot and he was merely present when the shooting took place.

AG: But you know that under our law the mere presence at a scene of murder is sufficient to cast suspicion on him.

Pulle: Then how did you discharge Chauhan?

AG: The facts are totally different. There is a man who admits that he shot, and no one identifies him as the person who shot. The murder weapon is missing and not recovered. The man who shot says he threw it into the Indian ocean. But here in your case the murder weapon is recovered and all the witnesses say it is not your client who shot the deceased. This is a normal murder case, let the court decide on who killed whom.

At the Canteen

Lawlitha: What do you think of the telephone conversation the Black prince had with detective Superintendent “Rick Shaw”.

Pupul: Dam good no, that bugger got exposed no.

Pinal: But why is he calling the Minister a “Cock Minister”

Lawlitha: Why he is bloody wild with the Minister, for smashing the leopard bases. Poor leopards are running for their dear life. Unlike other minister who called leopards baby brigade and started telling the people cock and bull stories this minister showing the cock to the leopards and the Black prince is bloody wild.

Pinal: That does not permit him to use his influence. Every one has forgotten that for any crime period of prescription is 20 years and for murder there is no prescription.

Pupul: What you are suggesting is that it would have been far better for Chauhan to have been discharged for want of evidence after an inquiry by a Magistrate than the AG intervening and discharging him.

Pinal: Yes you know what happened to one super cop charged with rape of a domestic. An AG tried to discharge him. The bar protested. The magistrate refused to discharge. He was committed to stand trial. Poor chap died of a heart attack. Now it is known that that domestic was not raped by the old man but by her own father.

Pupul: With this discharge both government and the opposition have committed suicide. The government for stupidity, the opposition for inaction.

Son’s indictment wounds Korean leader

SEOUL - A son of President Kim Young Sam of South Korea was charged last week with bribery and tax evasion in a corruption scandal that has crippled his father’s administration.

The son’s indictment was the final act in a four-month investigation that destroyed the president’s hopes of influencing the choice of his successor and provoked violent student protests against corruption.

Kim Hyun Chul, 37, was charged with taking $3.6 million in bribes from two businessmen seeking government contract and licenses and his influence in a court case over a stock dispute.

Prosecutors also charged him with taking $3.8 million in cash from four businessmen and laundering the money to evade $1.5 million in taxes. Those payments were not bribes, they said.

The younger Kim, arrested on May 17 has denied wrongdoing. He is the first close relative of an incumbent South Korean president to face criminal charges. Such a prosecution move would have been unthinkable when the nation was ruled by the military leaders who preceded President Kim. If found guilty of both bribery and tax evasion, the son could be sentenced to life in prison.

The case has destroyed the president’s credibility ahead of a December presidential election. By law, Mr. Kim cannot succeed himself, but he had hoped to influence the result.

In the past week, thousands of students demanding the president’s resignation have clashed with the police almost daily. The clashes have left two people dead. Despite the turmoil, the indictment of Kim Hyun Chul still failed to address an opposition claim, that $17 million the son kept in secret bank accounts was left over from his father’s campaign five years ago.

Shim Jae Ryun, the senior prosecutor, said investigators suspected that most of the money consisted of funds left over from a nationwide youth organization the president’s son had run to help his father’s election.

A spokesman for the National Congress for New Politics urged the prosecution to reveal the scale and source of Kim Young Sam’s campaign funding. He reiterated the opposition’s demand that Parliament investigate the election funding and call the president to a hearing.

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