Hisham: Prove ‘Copgate’ and we will act

(Malaysiakini) – The home minister has asked for proof of allegations of collusion between the country’s most powerful police officer, the attorney-general and an underworld figure to cover up a corruption investigation.

Hishammuddin Hussein (right) was responding to Malaysiakini’s report yesterday on how a number of whistleblowers – whose information led to the arrest of Johor kingpin Goh Cheng Poh aka Tengku Goh in 2007 – had been forced to implicate six police officers investigating the case.

“Prove it, prove it. If they prove it we can take action. As I have always said, no one can place themselves above the law,” he told Malaysiakini at the Parliament lobby today.

The six police officers investigating Tengku Goh were said to have been falsely charged – from testimonies coerced from the  whistleblowers – with fabricating evidence against him in 2007.

It has been alleged that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, then police chief Musa Hassan and the kingpin were behind the move.

Abdul Gani had allegedly used the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to access confidential files on witnesses and then hunt them down and force them to change their statements to implicate the police officers with falsifying evidence.

With the informants having changed their statements, Tengku Goh was eventually released from restricted residence in Kelantan and allowed to return to Johor.

Ramli’s claims

The policemen were eventually acquitted, the last of them in mid-2011. One of them was former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief Ramli Yusuff.

Ramli (right), in a birthday speech on Feb 29, had levelled the allegations against Abdul Gani who he said helped Musa to “fix” him and his men.

He had earlier said he suspected something was amiss in the ACA probe which he described as a witch hunt against him and his officers.

Malaysiakini had posted a special report in 2007 on the scandal, piecing together information on the goings-on involving the top echelon of the police force.

Musa Hassan has denied protecting Tengku Goh or conspiring with Abdul Gani to frame Ramli and his men, calling the allegations a tactic by those with an ulterior motive to create confusion.

The home minister today asked for proof of allegations of collusion between the country’s most powerful police officer, the attorney-general and an underworld figure to cover up a corruption investigation.

He was responding to Malaysiakini’s report yesterday on how a number of whistleblowers – whose information led to the arrest of Johor kingpin Goh Cheng Poh aka Tengku Goh in 2007 – had been forced to implicate six police officers investigating the case.

“Prove it, prove it. If they prove it we can take action.

“As I have always said, no one can place themselves above the law,” said Hishammuddin Hussein (right) when met by Malaysiakini in the Parliament lobby today.

The six police officers investigating Tengku Goh were said to have been falsely charged with  fabricating evidence in 2007.

It has been alleged that the AG, and then-IGP Musa Hassan and the kingpin were behind the move.

The policemen have eventually been acquitted, the last of them in mid-2011.