KUALA LUMPUR – PKR Youth have slammed the police for unnecessary intimidation after its vice chief Atyrah Hanim Razali was summoned for the second time over a report she had lodged against Special Functions Minister Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad and his supposed involvement in the littoral combat ships (LCS) scandal.
Speaking to the press after she had given her statement to police at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters here, Atyrah lamented how authorities have apparently focused their attention on questioning her instead of those allegedly associated with the project.
“I am only the person who filed the police report but I have been called in repeatedly while those (I named) in the report have yet to be investigated,” she said, adding that police “indicated” that there would be further questioning in the future.
She also claimed that there could possibly be ulterior motives behind the police insisting on speaking with her, saying: “Am I being called in to protect certain individuals?”
The case has since been transferred to the Bukit Aman police headquarters, according to Atyrah.
Meanwhile, her lawyer Sivamalar Genapathy claimed that it is “not really” normal procedure for police to call in a complainant but asserted that today’s session was a form of intimidation meant to delay investigations on the report.
“We are unsatisfied…why has Atyrah been summoned several times now while the alleged wrongdoers are left uninvestigated?” she questioned.
She noted that police should have no problem accessing documents on the LCS project mentioned in the report – such as the Public Accounts Committee report and the declassified forensic audit report – as they are all publicly available online.
The first time Atyrah had been called in by police was on August 29, the same day the report was lodged with the support of several other PKR figures, including PKR strategy director and Johor Baru MP Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir.
The police report follows revelations by PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli on Latiff and his alleged spouse Zainab Mohd Salleh, who is a shareholder of Malta-based offshore incorporated company Alizes Marine Ltd, the firm which had a hand in syphoning funds from the LCS project to accounts overseas.
Subsequently, Rafizi was questioned on September 3 by Sentul police over a report lodged against him by Latiff’s aide.
Following criticisms after Rafizi’s phone was confiscated during the session, police denied keeping the phone as intimidation, explaining instead that it was taken as part of its investigation process. – The Vibes, September 6, 2022