PUTRAJAYA, July 18 -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the appointment of a new Chief Justice has vindicated him over claims he wanted former attorney general Tan Sri Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh named to the role.

The PM acknowledged the speculation but insisted that this was baseless and stemmed from unnamed members of the legal fraternity whom he accused of "politicking".

"The complaints and grievances that were hurled at me for weeks, the criticisms, the slander, but now, it turns out that those claims were completely off the mark," he told reporters after performing Friday prayers at Surau Al-Istiqlal in Presint 14 here.

"There were names being thrown around, I can say it, including a former attorney general who served with...