Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 1): Police have denied 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) whistle-blower Xavier Andre Justo’s claim that he was forced by them to make certain statements, saying it would be silly for them to do such things.

Speaking to the media here yesterday, the former PetroSaudi International executive claimed that he was told by Malaysian officers to say that he “was a bad man, I liked money and Tarek (Obaid  of PetroSaudi) and PetroSaudi were nice” and that “Najib was the best Prime Minister ever”, when he had a meeting with a Malaysian police team in 2015.

Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh issued a statement today in response to Justo’s claim.

Amar Singh said that in 2015, he was the deputy director of CID (Legal and Investigations) and was responsible to oversee all criminal investigations at the federal level.

“On Dec 15, 2015, I led a team with two other officers to the Bangkok Remand Prison, Thailand for the purpose of obtaining a statement from Justo through the mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

“The statement was recorded by the Thai authorities with an English-speaking interpreter and we were present as witnesses,” he said.

Amar Singh said 57 questions were forwarded to Justo, focusing on introductory questions on his family and academics, specific questions on PetroSaudi, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and negotiations for the exchange of information, documents and data, and general questions relating to the security of the country.

He said that the focus of investigations was on the apparent sale or extortion of money for stolen data to third parties with a view to affect the security of the nation and added that the questions supposedly posed by the police would not be relevant to the investigations at all and would be silly for them to ask such questions.

“Our investigations were focused on the alleged theft of data relating to PetroSaudi and 1MDB and its subsequent attempt to sell/extort to/from third parties with an intent to affect the security of the country, not on your character or who is the best Prime Minister.

“So Mr Xavier Andre Justo… don’t lie,” said Amar Singh.

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