Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali urged the MACC to use its powers within the law to prevent ‘illegal interference’ by the police in its 1MDB investigation. — Picture by Yusof Mat IsaKUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali urged Malaysia’s graft busters today to use its powers against what he described as “illegal interference” from the police in the probe on debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Azmin reminded the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that obstructing an investigation by the federal agency is a criminal offence under Section 48 of the MACC Act 2009, but stopped short of suggesting that MACC charge the police with it.
“It is therefore incumbent on the MACC to use its powers within the law to thwart this illegal interference and do whatever is necessary to ensure that their 1MDB investigations proceed as it should.
“There is no doubt that these acts by the police represent a gross interference and must be stopped without any undue delay,” Azmin said in a statement.
This comes as a senior officer from the MACC division investigating state-owned 1MDB was called for questioning by the police in Putrajaya today.
The MACC officer to be questioned this afternoon is the ninth individual in the growing list of government investigators being scrutinised by police over the alleged leak of information from a probe on 1MDB.
The arrests come amid an ongoing MACC probe of possible corruption offences related to former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd, and another probe by a multi-agency taskforce that includes MACC on 1MDB itself.
Of the other eight, two MACC officers from the commission’s special operations division led by senior anti-graft officer Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin were questioned yesterday.
Bahri was also questioned on Monday by police officers from Bukit Aman at the commission’s office in Putrajaya.
On Saturday, police raided the house and office of Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairi, a deputy public prosecutor seconded to the MACC, in connection with the 1MDB probe.
On the same day, police confirmed questioning a member of the Attorney-General’s finance and anti-money laundering secretariat who is part of the special taskforce on 1MDB.
MACC has since been forced to deny its involvement in an alleged conspiracy to topple Putrajaya and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, following the publication of a purported draft charge sheets against Najib by whistleblower site Sarawak Report.
MACC had said that no such document exists as the graft probe on SRC International has yet to be completed.
- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/stand-up-to-illegal-interference-by-police-selangor-mb-tells-macc?ref=yfp#sthash.JuApFr2C.dpuf
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