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Two years ago, Malaysia Today revealed something very interesting that probably did not mean much to most readers. Well, recently, there have been some very interesting developments regarding this issue -- so maybe it is time we revisited what we wrote then. In Part 1, today, read what we wrote then. More will be revealed in the next episode of this series with some damaging evidence as well.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Just before the recent Hari Raya holidays, a lawyer from one of Malaysia’s leading law firms was arrested and detained overnight in the ACA lockup in Putrajaya. What was this lawyer, Rosli Dahlan, guilty of? Did he bribe a government officer? Did he pay RM50 to a policeman to avoid getting fined RM300 for speeding? Did he solicit and receive a bribe from a supplier or contractor as an inducement for dishing out lucrative contracts? No, his ‘crime’ was acting as a solicitor for a senior police officer who was being accused of accumulating RM27 million in undeclared assets.
We must take note of one thing here. The police officer, the Director of the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), was not being investigated for accumulating the alleged RM27 million in assets. They are not concerned with how he accumulated those assets over 37 years of service. They are just concerned with the fact that he did not declare them. His ‘crime’, therefore, was not in how he acquired those assets but in not declaring them. There is no crime involved here as far as the accumulation of assets is concerned. The ‘crime’ is that he did not declare them.
The Director of the CCID engaged Rosli as his solicitor. It was Rosli’s job as the solicitor to reply to the ACA query. And Rosli did. And for doing exactly what the Federal Constitution of Malaysia says every Malaysian citizen has a right to do -- to engage a lawyer and defend himself/herself against a criminal allegation -- Rosli himself came under the ACA investigation.
The ACA then asked Rosli to also declare his assets. Rosli wrote back asking for further clarification but the ACA ignored his query. Instead, they came to his office and in full view of the office staff arrested him, handcuffed him while roughly manhandling him resulting in injury, and threw him into the lockup for the night. The following day, Rosli was charged for failing to comply to an ACA directive.
Soon after that, the Director of the CCID too was arrested and charged for failure to declare his assets. He was slapped with four charges but the figure did not come to the RM27 million that was initially leaked to the media. How this RM27 million figure came about and who leaked it to the media will remain a mystery. Nevertheless, the charge stated a figure slightly over RM1 million and nowhere near the RM27 million that everyone thought was involved here.
But Rosli was not the only victim. The CCID Director’s two sisters too were taken in by the ACA. And it was reported that as soon as the Director left to perform his Umrah (small Haj), they brought his sisters in again to extract a ‘confession’ from them.
Ealier, similar tactics were used against another police officer. In this case, the wife and children of this particular police officer were detained by the ACA and he was asked to report to the ACA office if he would like to see his family released. They then took his statement, which was used to charge him later. But that is not the icing on the cake here. What would be the icing on the cake is that in the seven charges filed against him and his subordinate, the names of the informers or whistle-blowers were mentioned. This is as good as signing the death warrants of the whistle-blowers. Now, the organised crime syndicate knows who spilled the beans. How long do you think they have to live?
You want to be a Good Samaritan and help people in distress? You want to ‘assist’ the police and ACA in reducing the crime rate in Malaysia by becoming a whistle-blower? You want to do the job you are paid to do: that is, arresting criminals who are a danger to society? Please say ‘no’ to all three questions. And why is that? I will allow the following newspaper reports and documents speak for themselves. See whether you can figure out which are the police officers, which are the criminals, and which are the whistle-blowers. A word of caution though, it is not that easy to tell one from the other. And the whistle-blowers’ names have been documented on the charge sheet below. So this means their death warrants have already been signed by the ACA.
Oh, and one more thing, the ACA is actually feared and not respected, but only by those who go against the powers-that-be and refuse to obey those who walk in the corridors of power.
Three more cops held for falsifying witnesses’ statements
By LOURDES CHARLES
The Star, 24 October 2007
Three police officers – a deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent and sergeant – were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) for falsifying witnesses’ statements leading to the arrest of a businessman in Johor. The trio – from the Commercial Crimes Department (CCID) in Bukit Aman – were arrested at their office in Bukit Perdana by ACA officers yesterday. They are expected to be charged at the Jalan Duta Sessions Court today.
ACA Director-general Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan confirmed the arrests but declined to elaborate. It is learnt that the three allegedly falsified the witnesses’ statements to frame charges against a man, alleging that he was involved in illegal activities. The businessman was arrested under the Emergency Ordinance and placed under Restricted Residence in an east coast state.
The arrest of the three is the second such arrest by the ACA involving police officers and personnel falsifying witnesses’ statements. The ACA had on Oct 2 arrested two police officers who allegedly tried to frame Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan by forging and tampering with witnesses’ statements, claiming that Musa had freed three people detained under the Emergency Ordinance after receiving RM2mil.
The two – a chief Inspector and a lance corporal – were arrested in Kuantan and Kluang.
Two policemen held for falsifying statements
By LOURDES CHARLES
The Star, 3 Oct 2007
Two police officers who allegedly tried to frame Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan by falsifying and tampering with witness statements have been arrested. The two, a chief inspector and a lance corporal, were arrested in Kuantan and Kluang yesterday. They are both in their 40s.
ACA director-general Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan said they allegedly falsified the statements of seven witnesses as a basis to arrest three people under the Emergency Ordinance 1969 by claiming that they were members of a gaming syndicate. “As a result, the three were arrested by police officers from the Kluang district police headquarters on March 30,” he said.
The three men were freed after investigations into their cases and allegations arose of Musa ordering the three people to be freed after receiving RM2mil.
Ahmad Said said investigations showed that when the three were detained, Musa had received information that they had been framed. He said Musa ordered CID officers from the intelligence and operations division to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. ACA investigations later revealed that the IGP did not order or issue any instruction to release the three, he added.
“However, the IGP said if there was any abuse of power or fabrication of evidence, then they must be released,” he said. Ahmad Said added that CID investigations also revealed that the seven who were detained denied ever giving statements to the Kluang police about the involvement of the three people in a gaming syndicate.
As a result, the three were freed in April.
The chief inspector was arrested in Kuantan at about 3pm yesterday when he was called in for questioning while the lance corporal was arrested in Kluang at about 11pm. The officer who was arrested in Kuantan was previously in Kluang where he was attached to the anti-vice and gaming division.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said both were expected to be charged today with forgery and with using as genuine a forged document.
If convicted they could be jailed up to two years or a fine or both for each of the offence.
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