PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA - Former UN special rapporteur Datuk Param Cumaraswamy has called for a probe into alleged interference with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigations by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.

He said the then ACA director-general Datuk Shafee Yahya had testified before then High Court Justice Ariffin Jaka in the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial in June 2000 that the former prime minister had ordered him to close a file.

"It's still not too late to investigate. There is one alleged misdeed of Dr Mahathir, which needs investigation.

"In 1998, Anwar was investigated for interference with police investigations. Similarly, Mahathir should be investigated for his interference with ACA's investigations," said Param.

In the course of his testimony Shafee was asked about an investigation the ACA earlier carried out on the then director-general of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU).

Param produced the records of the trial as "sufficient evidence" to show that Dr Mahathir had interfered with the duties and responsibilities of the ACA.

He said several parties had later, in the interest of justice, lodged police reports asking them to investigate Dr Mahathir for his interference with the ACA in its probe of the EPU head.

Param added that, if there is no truth to Shafee's evidence, then he should have been charged for perjury. "That never happened either," said Param.

He said it is not too late to re-open the file, if at all one had been opened, after Shafee's revelation in court in June 2000.

Prior to the sodomy trial, Anwar was tried for committing corrupt practice under Section 2(1) of the (Emergency Powers) Ordinance 1970 for the alleged interference. He was found guilty and sentenced to six years' imprisonment.