Sarawak Report (SR) editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown said the attorney-general’s special officer, Mabel Muttiah, should explain why she asked the brother of murdered deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais to remove the body for cremation.
“If Mabel wants to tell her side of the story, she should explain why she texted the third brother, David, to ask if he would join ‘hard-core gangster’ Richard in removing the body and cremating it the next day,” Rewcastle-Brown told The Malaysian Insider via email.
She also asked why Mabel interfered behind the rest of the family’s back in such a way.
“And why did she ignore David’s warning that she should first speak to the oldest brother Charles about the plan?”
Sarawak Report was free to raise these issues as the texts were genuine, which Mabel has not denied, Rewcastle-Brown said in response to the former’s claim that the December 20 report in the blog was a “pack of lies and a manipulation of facts for an ulterior motive”.
Mabel also accused the whistle-blower site of practising unethical journalism as it did not contact her.
Mabel lodged a police report against Sarawak Report over allegations that she had played a role in preventing the second post-mortem on Kevin.
She told The Malaysian Insider that any assistance rendered to Kevin’s family members was done in good faith but “little did I realise I was stabbed in the back”.
Another sibling, Charles Morais, had made preparations to conduct a second post-mortem on Kevin’s remains as the outcome of the first procedure was vague.
Charles, however, abandoned the move as his estranged brother, Datuk Richard Morais, claimed Kevin’s body from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital mortuary on November 23.
Sarawak Report said Mabel sent text messages to Kevin’s family members in attempts to “bully and then bribe the family into cremating the body of Kevin, before a second post-mortem could be performed”.
Rewcastle-Brown also asked why the A-G offered the brothers money and why was Mabel communicating with Richard, who described himself as a “hard-core gangster”.
Rewcastle-Brown said Mabel’s claims were vague and contradictory.
“How can something be both ‘a pack of lies’ and ‘a manipulation of facts’? She has not denied she wrote the texts which I have quoted.
“Those texts speak for themselves and she appears to have acknowledged that their publication has already lost her (the) position in the A-G’s office,” she added.
Rewcastle-Brown said Mabel appeared to have been acting on behalf of the A-G (Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali) in those messages she sent and now she has taken the rap.
“Why does this put SR at fault, rather than herself or her bosses, who have let her take the blame?”
Charles, in an explosive statutory declaration on November 25, said Richard was instigated by certain personalities to dispose of Kevin’s body.
He told the media that Richard was a “crook” and would do anything for money.
The US permanent resident also said Kevin’s death was linked to a charge sheet he was working on to prosecute a highly placed government official for corruption.
Six men have been charged with Kevin’s murder, including pathologist Dr R. Kunasegaran, who was charged with abetment.
Kevin’s body was found in a cement-filled steel drum in a swamp in Taman Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, 12 days after his abduction on September 4
AG’s aide rubbishes SR’s latest expose
She says the blog has lied in implicating her in alleged foul play in the Morais murder probe.
PETALING JAYA: “A pack of lies” – that’s what Mabel Muttiah, a special assistant to the Attorney-General, says about a Sarawak Report article implicating her in alleged foul play in the investigation into the murder of deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais.
The article, published on the whistleblower website yesterday, concerned alleged text messages Muttiah sent to Morais’ family members that it said were attempts to bully and bribe them into pushing for the late DPP’s body to be cremated before a second post-mortem could be performed.
“The report was a pack of lies,” Muttiah told FMT today. “There must be something wrong with these people. They could have called me and verified the information before publishing the story, but they didn’t.
“It’s a substandard way of reporting. They are just out to get anyone they can.”
She said she was considering lodging a police report and taking legal action against Sarawak Report.
“It puts my integrity into question and that is painful,” she said of the article. “It affects my image, my career, my family.”
She also said she was hoping that “something could be done” against Sarawak Report. “They can’t get away with tarnishing the reputation of whomever they please.”
The blog claimed to be in possession of text messages that proved Muttiah’s direct involvement in the conspiracy to “unlawfully remove Morais’ body from the hospital morgue, behind the back of his closest family members.”
It said this was done on the day the courts received an application for a second post-mortem to be conducted on Morais’ body to determine the real cause of his death.
Morais, 55, went missing on September 4. His body was found 12 days later. It was submerged in an oil drum filled with cement.
On September 28, eight men, including an army doctor, were charged at two courts over the murder.
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