Police have detained a deputy public prosecutor, part of the recent arrests linked to money from a government agency allegedly going into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's private bank accounts. – Reuters pic, August 1, 2015.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy, who is seconded from the Attorney-General's Chambers, was the third person arrested in a sweep this morning.
The other two, Tan Sri Rashpal Singh and Jessica Kaur, will be released tonight after police failed to get a remand at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters this afternoon.
Rashpal is a former MACC advisor, while Jessica is an officer with the AGC.
Both were detained this morning and brought to the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters where they are being held for questioning under Section 124 of the Penal Code that pertains to activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
It is learnt they will likely be freed once police, who have 24 hours to detain them, finish questioning them.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed the arrests, Malaysiakini reported, but said DPP Sazilee was not remanded as police were expected to finish questioning him today.
Khalid told the news portal that the arrests were made in connection with a police report lodged against Sarawak Report editor Clare-Rewcastle Brown.
Rashpal and Jessica's lawyers have been tightlipped over exactly what their clients are being investigated for.
Rashpal, however, was mentioned in an article by website Malaysia Today as having met Rewcastle-Brown in London and was under suspicion of leaking information to the UK based website on 1MDB.
MACC denied this in a statement on July 21, saying that Rashpal, as an advisor, had no access to or oversight of the agency's probe. His tenure with the advisory board had also ended in February.
MACC has also denied that any leak of information from government investigators on 1MDB had come from within the anti-graft agency.
MACC and the AGC are part of the special government task force that is probing 1MDB, as well as allegations that money from companies linked to the state investor had been deposited into Prime MInister Dautk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts.
The other two agencies in the task force are the police and Bank Negara Malaysia.
Police on July 8 said they would investigate the leak of information on the probe into 1MDB, saying that they would also scrutinise members of the task force itself.
This came about after The Wall Street Journal alleged that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been put in Najib's personal accounts, citing information from Malaysian investigators.
Najib has denied taking money for personal gain, but has not directly addressed the fund transfers. He has, however, blamed former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for conspiring with foreigners to topple his administration.
New Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali also recently said that there was a plot to topple the prime minister.
- TMI
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