‘Charge AG too with abusing Banking Act’

Former KL police CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim urges the prime minister to make a stand on the Attorney-General, who has allegedly committed offences under Bafia.

PETALING JAYA: Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail should be charged with violating the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) when he himself had exposed confidential banking details in the past, alleged former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigations Department (CID) chief Mat Zain Ibrahim in an open letter to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today.

He alleged that the offence committed by Abdul Gani was similar to the charges brought against PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli and former banker Johari Mohamad on Aug 1.

Both were charged with the offence of revealing banking details involving the National Feedlot Corporation Snd Bhd scandal.

Mat Zain said that the charges against Rafizi were in order in the eyes of Bafia laws, and noted that Najib himself had defended the charges which were to “safeguard the integrity and credibility of the country’s financial and banking system”.

“[But] I’m sure among the important things that you were not told or were purposefully hidden from your knowledge is that the late Mohtar Abdullah [former AG] and Gani themselves had revealed financial statements involving former Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, his wife and children, and several companies, that totalled up to at least RM40 million,” he said.

Mat Zain said the exposure of these documents was in connection with the investigations of the Anti-Corruption Agency (now Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) against Abdul Rahim for allegegations of corruption and abuse of power when he was the chief minister of Malacca.

“In short, the offence that has been committed involving Gani is the same as the one Rafizi has done. Therefore, if Rafizi is charged under Section 97 of Bafai, then Gani also cannot be excluded from the same,” he said.

Elaborating on Gani’s case, Mat Zain said that during the ACA’s investigation of Abdul Rahim in the 1990s, there were more than 10 bank statements which amounted to about RM14.5 million. He said those were before other statements were received.

Documents ‘leaked’

The ACA and the AG’s chambers had then prepared a detailed summary statement and a draft of the charge against Abdul Rahim – three of those for abuse of power and corruption, and one for making a false Statutory Declaration (SD), he said.

Also included in the summary statement were the list of movable and unmoveble assets belonging to Abdul Rahim and his family, including financial statements from several banking institutions, complete with account numbers, transactions and account balances, and the names of the banks.

“All these documents were classified as ‘secret’ and signed by Gani himself on each document, including those financial statements,” he said.

Mat Zain said that these documents were then “leaked” when they were contained in four police reports, made by Anwar Ibrahim between July 9, 1999 and Aug 20, 1999, alleging abuse of power against Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former AG, the late Mohtar, and Gani Patail, for protecting the late Eric Chia),Tun Daim Zainuddin, Rafidah Aziz dan Abdul Rahim.

Mat Zain said that since the reports were lodged when Anwar was incarcerated, it was a possibility that prison staff or even prisoners had sighted the contents before it reached the police.

“The report of the ACA’s investigations was then widely distributed on the Internet even then when the Internet usage was not as wide as it is now,” he said.

Mat Zain said that he at the time, as the KL CID chief, had recommended that Anwar’s report be classified under Section 2(1) Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2, 1970 for abuse of power.

He said investigations then should have then also focused on how a “secret” document could come under the control of Anwar, when he was in prison.

“Aside from that, I had suggested a notice under Section 51(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act to be sent to Anwar to compel him to produce all the documents in his keeping,” he said.

‘Najib must state his stand’

However, Mat Zain said that four days after his recommendation, the AG sent a “confidential” letter to his personal address, saying that Gani had lodged a police report on the “leak”.

The case was then investigated by (former Inspector-General of Police) Musa Hassan, who
was then the Bukit Aman criminal investigations department deputy director (prosecution and legal division).

“However, I was not informed of the details of that report, and why Gani was only making a report in response to Abdul Rahim’s case and not for others. I took this action by Gani and Musa at the time as an attempt to hijack the whole investigation of KL police and prevent KL police from getting deeper into our investigations of the reports made by Anwar,” he said.

Mat Zain said that Najib, now knowing that AG has allegedly committed offences under the Bafia, must now state his stand.

“I expect Gani to vehemently deny responsibility over the leaking of the investigation report and financial documents, eventhough his signature is on every page and they were classified as secret, and should have been kept in safety according to government department procedures,” he said.

However, Mat Zain said that if Gani wanted to shirk his responsibilities to the late former AG Mohtar Abdullah, he should make that statement himself.

“If he [AG] can allow false documents to be used in the royal commission of inquiry [RCI] in the [Anwar] black eye case and cause those same documents that he himself ordered a doctor to manufacture to disappear before the RCI report was sent to the Agong, then… it may not be a problem for him to create another lie,” he said.

Mat Zain again urged Najib to call for a tribunal to be set up to investigate the various “credible” allegations made against the AG.