GOVT SUPPORTS PROPOSAL FOR LEGAL AID FOUNDATION

PADANG RENGAS (Malaysia), Jan 23 (Bernama) -- The government has given an
in-principle agreement to the Bar Council's proposal for a Legal Aid Foundation
to address the increasing number of accused who cannot afford to hire lawyers,
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said.

He said the Prime Minister was very concerned about the matter and had
agreed to the proposal after being told that 80 per cent of accused in cases
such as theft and assault were not represented by lawyers when they were charged
in court.

"This is still at the discussion stage and I have requested the
Attorney-General's Chambers to sit down with the Bar Council to discuss this
further.

"The Prime Minister has asked me to look into this and I certainly support
the foundation because I strongly feels that no one should be left
urepresented," he said.

He was speaking to reporters before presenting the excellence awards for
exam top performers from Padang Rengas parliamentary area here Saturday.

He also said that the Prime Minister had been informed that the Legal Aid
Bureau cannot represent the accused because prosecution was always made in the
name of the government.

"We cannot have another government officer representing the accused person,"
he said.

Mohamed Nazri also said that the Bar Council had asked for a RM5 million
allocation from the government to kick-start the foundation.

"This is something that we have to discuss... probably a better arrengement
would be this -- the government will contribute the same amount which the Legal
Aid Foundation can collect from lawyers. That will be more reasonable," he said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Nazri said, the Legal Aid Bureau had officially changed
its name to the Legal Aid Department from Jan 16.

The name change was to do away with the perception that the Legal Aid Bureau
was only a small unit when in fact it was a big as a department, he said.
-- BERNAMA