Nazri: I can’t be responsible for my son’s actions

(Malaysian Digest) – “I cannot be responsible for his actions. It has nothing to do with me,” said de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in response to allegations linking his son Mohamad Nedim to an assault case last week.

The Malaysian Insider reported that Nazri has refused to respond to the allegations against his son, saying the latter is an adult and could handle his own affairs.

“It (the incident involving Mohamad Nedim) has nothing to do with me,” Nazri told the news portal when approached in Parliament yesterday.

The minister in the prime minister’s department also explained that several police reports have already been lodged on the March 20 incident and the police were already investigating it so it would be inappropriate for him to issue any comment on the ongoing case.

“I can’t even comment. If I start to comment, that might prejudice the situation because there is already a police report,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Several online news portals reported last week that Mohamad Nedim had assaulted a security supervisor at a condominium in Mont Kiara on Tuesday night.

One news portal reported an unnamed source saying that the condominium management was under pressure to cover up the incident, although the alleged assault was captured on CCTV, as security companies rely on the federal government to renew their license.

Yesterday, PKR questioned if the police were “rushing to the defense” of a Barisan Nasional (BN) leader again after clearing Mohamad Nedim of the assault allegation just four days after the incident.

Brickfields district police chief ACP Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid had said on Saturday it was “a clear-cut case” that only involved the security guard and Mohamad Nedim’s bodyguard.

“I do not know why and how another person (Mohamad Nedim) was dragged into this,” he added.

PKR vice president N Surendran said in a statement yesterday that Wan Abdul Bari’s statement, coming just four days after the alleged assault on the night of March 20, was “suspicious and disturbing.”

“Are the police trying to protect Umno and the government’s reputation? The public is entitled to a thorough and impartial investigation into this incident.

“It has also been reported that there are CCTV recordings of the entire incident. What do the CCTV tapes reveal?” Surendran said.

He also called on the police to form a special investigation team to further investigate “this assault case involving a top minister’s son.”

Mohamad Nedim had previously been alleged to be involved in another violent crime in 2004, when he was accused of being involved in the death of Darren Kang, a student who was studying law in the United Kingdom, who was killed in Sri Hartamas.

At the time, Nazri had admitted that his son was in the area but insisted he had nothing to do with the crime, in which five Thai foodstall workers eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.