The lawyer at the centre of a Malaysian corruption inquiry said Monday he was too drunk to remember a conversation captured on video where he appears to broker judicial appointments.
The footage, released by dissident former premier Anwar Ibrahim last year, triggered a furore in Malaysia and cast a shadow over the reputation of the judiciary.
Lawyer V.K. Lingam said he did not recall the phone conversation where he purportedly assured Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim, who was then a judge, that he would push him for a top position, with the help of a prominent businessman and a politician.
"I do not know who I was talking to. But certainly I was not talking to Ahmad Fairuz," Lingam told the royal commission.
"Looking at the video, there's a bottle of wine, bottle of whisky, bottle of brandy, and a bottle of 7-Up. Obviously there is a drinking session going on," he said.
"I must have had too many drinks, I do not know what I said. Now I cannot recollect. It is more than six years ago."
Ahmad Fairuz went on to be appointed to the nation's number-two post and was then quickly elevated to the top position of chief justice. He completed his term and stood down last year.
But Lingam denied he had ever tried to influence judicial appointments.
"I never influenced anybody in the appointment of Ahmad Fairuz as chief judge of Malaya, president of Court of Appeals or chief justice. I have never spoken to the former prime minister on the appointment of judges."
However, Lingam had earlier even refused to directly confirm he was the man in the video, said to be made in December 2001, admitting only that "it looks like me, the voice sounds like me".
The maker of the video clip, 34-year-old businessman Loh Gwo Burne, also appeared before the inquiry and said it was recorded when he went to Lingam's house to discuss a legal matter.
"Yes, I recorded V.K. Lingam speaking on the telephone," he said, dismissing suggestions that the lawyer was drunk at the time or that he could have been play-acting.
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