AG’s chambers to decide about Aussie TV crew
IGP says police action appropriate as PM’s event was not an interview or media conference.
(FMT) – The fate of an Australian news crew arrested here last night will be decided by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, police said today.
The Inspector General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, said police would investigate their claims to be journalists from the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.
ABC has said that reporter Linton Besser and cameraman Louis Eroglu from its flagship Four Corners current affairs programme had been arrested. They had wanted to ask Najib “about a corruption scandal”, referring to a RM2.6 billion deposit in Najib’s bank account in 2013.
Khalid confirmed that two people had been arrested “because they defied police orders”. He told reporters here today: “We will discuss with the AG’s Chambers to charge them for obstructing a public servant from obstructing his duty”, Bernama reported.
He said the action of the two men was improper as the Prime Minister’s event was not an interview or media conference session. Najib was visiting Darul Ehsan mosque in Sentosa at the time as part of his official visit to Sarawak.
The two men had been released on police bail this morning and were required to remain in the state while investigations were being carried out. Khalid said media personnel, whether local or international, should maintain ethics while conducting their duties.
“Security control for the Prime Minister is the task of the police. We do not want anything untoward happening to him,” he said, according to Bernama.
Besser and Eroglu were also reported to have been at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur earlier yesterday held by A.S. Selvi, whose late husband P Balasubramaniam was the private investigator in the Altantuya Shaariibu murder case.
Selvi had sought help for her children’s education expenses and offered an apology to the prime minister’s wife Rosmah Mansor but ended the news conference abruptly under questioning from Besser. She said she withdrew her remark of Rosmah having “killed” PI Bala, who died in 2013 soon after returning from exile in India. She said she accepted that he had died of a heart attack.
