1MDB taskforce questions Sarawak Report accuser
(Malay Mail Online) – Police have interviewed former journalist Lester Melanyi over his claim that Sarawak Report forged documents on 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
According to Lester, he was twice questioned at hotels here by a three-man team from the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters who were part of the special taskforce investigating 1MDB.
“What I told them were the same with what I had said in the video,” he told Malay Mail Online today.
“I also told the task force that I was never involved in forging documents relating to 1MDB,” he said, contrary to some media reports.
Lester had in a video recording this week accused the London-based website and its British chief, Clare Rewcastle-Brown, of conspiring with Malaysian opposition lawmakers to publish forged documents on 1MDB.
He later admitted to Malay Mail Online that he was paid to expose a convoluted conspiracy involving Malaysia’s opposition, SR and Rewcastle-Brown in their alleged plot to unseat Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak through so-called doctored leaks of documents on 1MDB.
Rewcastle-Brown has denied the allegations, and accused the former Sarawak Tribune editor of lying in return for payment.
Today, Lester insisted that his allegation was truthful, and highlighted that Rewcastle-Brown did not previously question his credibility
“I stand by what I said in the video. Why should I create or manufacture something if I do not have concrete proof?” he asked. “If I am a liar as what she has claimed, why did she recruit and bring me to London in 2012 to 2013 in the first place?”
“On my return to Sarawak, why did she appoint me as SR’s Sarawak representative?” he asked.
Rewcastle-Brown told Malay Mail Online yesterday that Lester is not a credible source, labelling him a “known liar and debtor” in Kuching.
She also said that he was not associated to SR.
Lester had claimed that he stopped working for SR last year because he refused to be part of a mission to forge 1MDB documents to depict Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the recipient of US$700 million from the state-owned firm.
The special taskforce investigating 1MDB includes the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
