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| PM Najib Razak lets AG Gani Patail off the hook |
KUALA LUMPUR — Putrajaya has closed the door for good on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s 1998 “black-eye incident” despite allegations of evidence fabrication against Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.
In its highly-anticipated explanation to Parliament today, the government clearly side-stepped the damning accusations made by former investigating officer Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim that Abdul Gani had falsified documents in the case, brushing aside the former’s two recent open letters.
Instead, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told the House today that there was no need for Mat Zain to complain that the independent panel formed to investigate the evidence fabrication had failed to clear his name in the incident.
This, said Nazri, was because Mat Zain had never been the subject of the panel’s probe and had merely been called forth as a witness to testify.
“The MACC’s (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) advisory board, though its letter to Datuk Mat Zain on July 23, 2009, had already stressed that there was no need for the independent panel or the MACC to clear Mat Zain’s name, seeing as he was not the subject of the investigation in the first place,” he said.
Nazri also said that the panel had been constitutional, despite Mat Zain’s claim that the Solicitor-General had no right to appoint the members.
In his first open letter to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, Mat Zain had claimed that the right to appoint a tribunal only lay with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, based on the prime minister’s advice.
The A-G, he added, had deceived the Cabinet into believing that the S-G could act in his stead and appoint the members as deputy public prosecutors under the Criminal Procedure Code.
In July 2008, Anwar had filed a police report, accusing Abdul Gani, Mat Zain, Musa and a Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof of falsifying a medical report on his black-eye case, which alleged that his injuries had been self-inflicted.
Three independent panel members comprising Federal and Court of Appeal judges later cleared Abdul Gani and Musa of the allegations, but the status of Mat Zain and Dr Abdul Rahman remained uncertain.
MC
In its highly-anticipated explanation to Parliament today, the government clearly side-stepped the damning accusations made by former investigating officer Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim that Abdul Gani had falsified documents in the case, brushing aside the former’s two recent open letters.
Instead, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told the House today that there was no need for Mat Zain to complain that the independent panel formed to investigate the evidence fabrication had failed to clear his name in the incident.
This, said Nazri, was because Mat Zain had never been the subject of the panel’s probe and had merely been called forth as a witness to testify.
“The MACC’s (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) advisory board, though its letter to Datuk Mat Zain on July 23, 2009, had already stressed that there was no need for the independent panel or the MACC to clear Mat Zain’s name, seeing as he was not the subject of the investigation in the first place,” he said.
Nazri also said that the panel had been constitutional, despite Mat Zain’s claim that the Solicitor-General had no right to appoint the members.
In his first open letter to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, Mat Zain had claimed that the right to appoint a tribunal only lay with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, based on the prime minister’s advice.
The A-G, he added, had deceived the Cabinet into believing that the S-G could act in his stead and appoint the members as deputy public prosecutors under the Criminal Procedure Code.
In July 2008, Anwar had filed a police report, accusing Abdul Gani, Mat Zain, Musa and a Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof of falsifying a medical report on his black-eye case, which alleged that his injuries had been self-inflicted.
Three independent panel members comprising Federal and Court of Appeal judges later cleared Abdul Gani and Musa of the allegations, but the status of Mat Zain and Dr Abdul Rahman remained uncertain.
MC
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