KUALA LUMPUR – Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun has rejected the application to discuss the remand of three senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers, but said Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar will bring it up in the House today.
In a letter to Fahmi Fadzil (Lembah Pantai-PH), Azhar cited Standing Order 18(1) to support his rejection and said that the matter is not an “urgent” one.
Azhar also said he understood that Wan Junaidi will address the matter in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He added that Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin had made mention of the MACC officers yesterday in the lower house.
Meanwhile, the Pakatan Harapan presidential council called for a temporary suspension of MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki to allow for an investigation to be opened.
In a statement, the council also urged the government to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to set up a royal commision of inquiry to investigate issues linked to MACC and provide reform suggestions.
Although the council welcomed Hamzah’s explanation that a police inquiry has been initiated, it said that the case has created negative perceptions of the anti-graft body.
Representing the council are PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, and Upko’s Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.
On Monday, The Vibes reported that three senior MACC officials were remanded for allegedly misappropriating funds involving a portion of US$6 million (RM25 million) in seized funds belonging to the government.
A well-placed source in MACC said the three officials were arrested last week in connection with the alleged counterfeiting of cash seized from former Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation director-general Datuk Hasanah Abd Hamid three years ago.
Confirming a report by Edisi Siasat, the source indicated that the millions in US banknotes were seized by the MACC as evidence into the criminal breach of trust (CBT) charges involving a total of US$12.1 million levelled against Hasanah.
The three officials were remanded by MACC for six days from September 14.
The evidence money, seized under MACC’s Op Dinar 2 at a condominium in Cyberjaya in 2018, was due to be returned to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) recently. However, a large portion of it came back in the form of fake notes.
It is understood that the money was supposed to be returned to Hasanah, who would then be required to reimburse the PMO, but the former intelligence chief discovered a large portion of the money given to her were counterfeit notes.
“The officers involved had requested two weeks to return the money in their custody, in which time they converted it to counterfeit notes and returned it,” the source said without elaborating on the deadline to return the cash.
On April 12, Hasanah was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by the high court after judge Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh said the prosecution applied to refrain from further prosecuting her.
The judge then ordered all exhibits and evidence tendered and produced before the court to be returned to the prosecution team.
On October 25, 2018, Hasanah pleaded not guilty to the CBT charge involving US$12.1 million belonging to the government.
The prosecution initially alleged she committed the offence when she served as director-general of the Prime Minister’s Department’s research division in Putrajaya between April 30 and May 9, 2018. – The Vibes, September 23, 2021
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