Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 9, 2020 - March 15, 2020

LATHEEFA Koya was still the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner when she appeared as a witness for the defence in the SRC International Sdn Bhd trial last Thursday. Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is facing seven criminal charges involving the embezzlement and money laundering of RM42 million belonging to the state-owned entity.

A subpoenaed witness, she was taken to task by defence lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah for releasing the now infamous “can I advise you something” audio clips in January at a highly publicised press conference.

 

‘Criminal conspiracy of the highest order’

She had labelled the recordings — of Najib, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and a number of individuals connected to 1MDB which were made in 2016 when he was attempting to sort out a number of issues relating to investigations into the company — “a criminal conspiracy of the highest order”.

Shafee pressured her to explain the legality of making the nine audio clips public as they may not be admissible in court once released. Latheefa said it was not her job to ensure the recordings were admissible in court and maintained she had a public duty to release them.

Shafee then attempted to discredit the authenticity of the audio clips.

Shafee: Have you determined that they are authentic and not tampered with?

Latheefa: The conversation does not look like it was cut and edited. We also double-checked the events of the dates as per the content and [checked] the dates the conversations took place and they added up.

Shafee: Was there forensic authentication done on the audio clips before releasing them?

Latheefa: There was no forensic authentication done as the investigation into the authentication is still ongoing, but we double-checked the voices in the recordings and it was evident who it was.

Throughout her testimony, Latheefa was heckled by Najib’s supporters, who had crammed themselves onto every available bench in court.

Despite the loud whispers and jeers from the public gallery, ­Latheefa maintained her composure during her testimony.

 

Spectators’ sarcastic laughter

Asked why the MACC had not conducted its investigations behind closed doors, she pointed out that the agency had gone public on many occasions and that the commission has the discretion to do so.

Shafee: Did you consider doing this in secret?

Latheefa: I don’t think it’s a secret when it involves the public interest. This is not the first time, for example, if a team stumbles upon [information pertaining to] millions of ringgit, they would share the info with the public.

Shafee: But they don’t name the person involved.

Latheefa: They do, they have done.

“Give me one example!” Shafee thundered, eliciting sarcastic laughter from the public gallery.

“The Sabah watergate scandal. When money was found in Sabah, they named the Sabah director who was involved,” she responded. She was referring to the MACC’s investigation into alleged corruption at the Sabah Water Department in 2016, which resulted in over RM100 million, several luxury handbags, jewellery, watches and vehicles being seized.

Throughout the almost two-hour examination, Latheefa stood her ground on why she was of the view that the audio clips ought to be released, while Shafee tried to discredit her by labelling the recordings illegal.

In essence, she maintained she was duty-bound to the public to reveal the recordings to ensure that there would never be another instance of the AG, the Prime Minister’s Office, the MACC or any other key institution being involved in criminal activity as the recordings revealed that certain individuals in positions of authority were leaking information or tampering with the investigation.

Less than 24 hours after Latheefa took the witness stand, she resigned from her post as MACC chief.

However, she is scheduled to return on Monday as the defence continues to examine the veracity of the recordings before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

 

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