IGP confirms 3 cops sent to question Raja Petra in UK
(FMT) – Three police officers from Bukit Aman went to the United Kingdom earlier this week to meet with Raja Petra Kamarudin, The Malaysian Insight reported.
Inspector-General of Police Mohd Fuzi Harun told the portal that the three officers had gone to the UK to record Raja Petra’s statement. Raja Petra remains in self exile in the UK.
The statement, taken on Wednesday in a session said to have lasted five hours, was over police reports filed by Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali against the blogger.
On Oct 22, Apandi lodged two police reports against Raja Petra over an online article carrying a corruption allegation against him. The reports were filed in Kuantan and Putrajaya.
The AG was later reported to have said the offence should come under Section 499 of the Penal Code for criminal defamation.
Kuantan district police chief ACP Abdul Aziz Salleh had also confirmed receiving the report, saying that apart from Section 499, the investigation was also being conducted under Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The AG had filed the police reports over articles published on Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today blog on Oct 20, in which it was alleged that Apandi had demanded RM4 million from a Chinese businessman, identified as a “business partner” of the Sultan of Johor, on a case he had won.
Another claim made by Raja Petra in the articles were that a meeting had taken place in 2015 between then chief justice Arifin Zakaria, current chief justice Raus Shariff, current Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Raja Petra alleged that the meeting was about an alleged plot by then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail with some others to bring down the government through investigations into 1MDB and its former subsidiary, SRC International.
On Tuesday, Apandi said he was still waiting for an apology from Raja Petra, adding that he would proceed to sue if there was no apology from the blogger.
“If there is no apology forthcoming from him, I will definitely sue him till kingdom come.
“How can he smear my name? I don’t even know him. It is my reputation,” Apandi said at a press conference, adding that it did not matter if he sued him here or in the UK.
