HK’s ICAC gags future talk on RM40m Sabah Umno case

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Dec 13, 2012

(The Malaysian Insider) – Hong Kong graftbusters have cautioned Malaysia’s opposition leaders against publicising any future developments in the RM40 million Sabah Umno case, warning that compromising confidentiality could jeopardise their probe as well as the safety of those involved.

In keeping with their own secrecy rule, officials from the renowned Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) also refused at their meeting with PKR yesterday to confirm or deny if they planned to reopen the controversial case, which has been linked to Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman.

Rafizi Ramli, who led PKR’s delegation to Hong Kong, said the officials had merely offered their undertaking to carefully peruse all the documents he had surrendered to them as evidence before contacting him again.

“They said they will go through everything in great detail and contact us for the next step. They would not say if the case will be reopened,” he told The Malaysian Insider in a phone call from Hong Kong.

But despite the ICAC’s secrecy, the PKR strategy director insisted that yesterday’s meeting had been fruitful, adding that the agency’s advice to keep things secret could only mean that it views the matter seriously.

He said PKR agreed to proceed in cloak-and-dagger fashion to respect the ICAC’s processes and to ensure that should the agency decide to reopen its books on the case, their public statements would not ruin its investigation.

“So if we are coming again to Hong Kong, with witnesses, or without, the advice is that we do not announce it in the media.

“This could be good for Musa, in a way, since we cannot shed too much light on the investigation… but we will find a way to keep things alive politically without compromising the ICAC’s work,” Rafizi said.