HK has closed Musa’s case, says Sabah BN secretary - Clara Chooi

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 ― PKR’s Rafizi Ramli should stop pestering Hong Kong to reopen Datuk Musa Aman’s RM40 million graft probe, says Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, adding he will reveal official correspondence from the territory’s anti-graft agency tomorrow to prove they had closed the case of their own accord.

“I will reveal the letter from the ICAC showing that the case was closed. I have the document that he has been hunting for... I will reveal it in a press conference in Parliament on Thursday,” the Kota Belud MP told The Malaysian Insider.

He was responding to Rafizi’s plan to lead a four-man mission to Hong Kong to pressure the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into reopening the graft probe against Musa and Sabah timber trader Michael Chia.

Rafizi is heading a four-man delegation hoping to resurrect the ICAC probe.

He called Rafizi an “actor” and a “hypocrite” obsessed with “political theatrics” for organising the trip just because he refused to believe that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the ICAC had investigated the matter thoroughly and dropped the case for valid reasons.

Abdul Rahman further accused Rafizi of practising double standards for distrusting the MACC’s decision to close Musa’s case when he had accepted the Anti-Corruption Agency’s (ACA) decision in the late 1990s call off its probe on allegations that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim once controlled some RM3 billion in master accounts.

“But stop, stop being an actor. This is something very serious in nature because there is mention of the Sabah chief minister (Musa),” he told Rafizi.

If Rafizi insists on going to Hong Kong, however, Abdul Rahman said he will match the PKR man’s theatrics by collecting donations to fly him to the UK, US and Singapore to dig up the dirt on the RM3 billion allegation against Anwar.

“Dig up what happened to that RM3 billion... after you (Rafizi) finish your business in Hong Kong, take a connecting flight to the UK, the US and Singapore.

“If he (Rafizi) does not have money, I will take pity of him... I will try to raise funds among Umno members, start a fund... ‘Tabung Pembongkaran RM3 billion’ during the Umno annual general meeting next week and get members to donate and buy him the flight tickets,” Abdul Rahman said.

He continued to insist that neither the ICAC nor the MACC had violated any of their principles in ordering the probe against Musa closed, saying both agencies had conducted a thorough investigation before making the decision.

ICAC representatives met with Musa last year.

Representatives from the ICAC had even travelled to Sabah last year to meet personally with Musa, who offered his full co-operation, Abdul Rahman added.

“So, subsequently, the MACC, together with the ICAC concluded that there was no case as the allegations were not sustainable.

“Now, why is it that Rafizi does not believe the MACC this time but believed them back when they were still known as the ACA? That is the fundamental question,” he asked.

Rafizi and three other PKR lawmakers plan to meet with the ICAC and several Hong Kong lawmakers during their two-day trip beginning tomorrow to determine the circumstances surrounding the ICAC’s closure of its probe against Musa.

The PKR strategy director believes the probe may have been closed for dubious reasons such as the agency’s failure to cajole the MACC into co-operating with them in the case.

News portal Free Malaysia Today had quoted Hong Kong’s Director of Public Prosecutions Kevin Zervos as saying his office would require fresh evidence to revisit the case.

“In relation to this case, it was more of a jurisdictional matter,” Zervos said. “Material that was obtained from Malaysia was that it was political donations. If anything comes up now to show that this wasn’t the case, the matter would definitely be looked into.”

At a press conference yesterday, Rafizi said the PKR team will also file a formal request with the ICAC’s Operations Review Committee (ORC) seeking for the case the be reopened, in light of recent developments that he said warrants a second investigation.

Among others, Rafizi pointed to his recent exposé on the “gratification” received by Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz’s family from Chia, which he said was suspect as the Umno minister had been the one who first “cleared” Musa from allegations of corruption.

Chia’s alleged link with Musa first exploded in the media following an April article by whistleblower site Sarawak Report, which had claimed that former was caught trying to leave the Hong Kong International Airport with the RM40 million in Singapore currency.

Nazri was accused of receiving gratification from Chia.

At the time, Chia had allegedly told the authorities that the money was meant for Musa.

The issue hit headlines again last month when Nazri told Parliament that Musa had been cleared of corruption in the matter after Malaysian and Hong Kong anti-graft authorities found that the money was a “political donation” to Sabah Umno and was not meant for Musa’s personal use.

But in the ensuing debates on the issue, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers chided Nazri for declaring Musa innocent without providing proof that ICAC had cleared the chief minister of its own volition.

According to Nazri, the ICAC had closed the case after the MACC discovered in its probe that the money in Chia’s possession was meant for Sabah Umno and not Musa.

After Nazri’s denial, Rafizi held a press conference in Parliament revealing what he said was photographic evidence that Nazri had allegedly received kickbacks from Chia to clear his name, in the form of a RM459,000 Hummer given to his son.