Ignoring the French court's subpoena over the
Scorpene deal investigations will be to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's
peril, says Suaram.
KUCHING:
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will be subpoenaed to appear before the
French court to give evidence in a corruption case involved in the
purchase of the Scorpene submarines.
According to Suaram lawyer, Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, who recently returned
from France where they met the judge who is going to preside the
hearing of the corruption case in which RM500 million was allegedly paid
as commission to Perimekar, the French court has the power to subpoena
Najib to testify.
A subpoena will be also issued to Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
and Abdul Razak Baginda to appear before the French court, she said.
Perimekar was at the time wholly owned by Razak and his wife Mazalinda.
“When we met the judge on March 16, 2012 we supplied the list of
witnesses who are to be subpoenaed to give evidence before the court.
“We gave him the names of Najib Tun Razak, Zahid Hamidi and Razak
Baginda,” Fadiah said to the applause of more than 2,000 at a “ceramah”
at the Third Mile Bazaar, Kuching, on Sunday night.
When the case was filed in court in France two years ago, Zahid said
that he could go to France to give statement and would give his
cooperation.
But lately he said that he did not want to go due to lack of funds
and asked who would pay for his flight and his stay in France.
According to Fadiah, Malaysians are prepared to pay for his flight
and stay in France as long as he is prepared to give evidence.
“Why should you be afraid if you have nothing to hide?” she asked.
‘Najib can be arrested’
Fadiah said that in this corruption case the French court has the
power to hand over subpoena to the witnesses and to ask them to be
present at the court to give evidence.
“If they fail to attend the subpoena that has been issued by the
French court, they will be given notice again to be present to give
statement.
“Again if they fail to be present, the French court will issue a
warrant of arrest to force them to be present and give statements and to
prove the truth that we are seeking for.
“And if they fail again, Interpol (International Police) can issue an
alert and they can be arrested and dragged to the French court,” she
said.
The delegation also met their French lawyers who showed them 153
documents which the French police had complied after two years of
investigations.
“Those documents shown to us are enough evidence to show the
government of Malaysia was involved in the payment of illegal commission
that was received by Perimekar,” she alleged.
“When we looked into the evidence we found out so many payments have
been made and this corruption case is much bigger than what we have
thought,” she said, including the US$1 billion (RM3 billion) to be paid
as conditions before the discussions on the purchase of the submarines
could take place.
Fadiah said that they had to go to France to open the case to seek
the truth as the courts in Malaysia are not independent as they (the
courts) are used by the government as tools and the people have no voice
to demand for truth.
“We cannot get justice and fairness because the government is so much
involved in corruption and also because of the Official Secrets Act.
“But this is our money, the people’s money. We want to know how is our money spent.
“How much is being used? How much is the corrupted money going into
the pockets of ministers and their cronies?” she asked, calling on the
people to stand up and be with them.
“Let us find the truth and the truth will be out soon.
“Let us pray that the subpoena will be issued soon so that they can be dragged to court to give their statements,” she said.
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