The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kuala Lumpur

Former longtime leader Mahathir Mohamad denied at a public inquiry Thursday that outsiders manipulated top judicial appointments during his reign - in a scandal that has cast doubts about the independence of Malaysia's judiciary.

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's longest serving prime minister from 1981 to 2003, was testifying before a government inquiry into a secretly recorded video clip that showed a man believed to be a prominent lawyer, V.K. Lingam, boasting that he could get key judicial appointments made with Mahathir's help.

Lawyers and opposition groups have said that the clip was evidence of deep flaws in Malaysia's secretive process of appointing judges. The clip was made in December 2001 but leaked in September 2007 by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has refused to say how he obtained it.