Axe A-G, Mat Zain tells Najib
Gani was accused to manoeuvring his way out of prosecuting the MACC trio. File pic
The former city criminal investigation chief said that the Attorney-General would try his best to trick his way to avoid prosecuting those who have clearly given false testimony in the recent royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into how the DAP aide fell to his death in a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office.
For the sake of national interest and holding to the Rule of Law, we hope that the prime minister seriously considers using powers that only he possesses under Article 125 (3) and Article 145 (6) of the Federal Constitution to solve this long-standing crisis, he wrote in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police.
The two clauses in the constitution allows for the prime minister to appoint a tribunal to consider the dismissal of federal court judges and the Attorney General.
Mat Zain, who headed the 1998 police probe into former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahims black-eye case, has repeatedly accused Abdul Gani of deceiving the federal government.
He recently called for a royal commission of inquiry to investigate Abdul Ganis role in destroying public confidence in the police.
In an earlier letter to IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar, he had called on police to begin investigations into five MACC officers that the Teoh RCI found to have lied to the commission, three of whom he said should also be charged for abetment of suicide pursuant to the findings of the royal panel.
Mat Zain said that then deputy director for Selangor MACC Hishammuddin Hashim together with officers Arman Alies and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus were culpable in the inte! rrogatio n of Teoh as the RCI found that the three men had left the DAP aide almost a mental and physical wreck.
In todays letter, he cited the Commissions Act, which specifically allows for witnesses to be charged for bearing false testimony in the proceedings of an RCI.
Although the Act also states that no testimony in such a proceeding may be used as evidence for other charges, he said police should investigate the three anti-graft officers based on the RCIs findings to establish if they should be charged for abetting in Teohs suicide.
The RCI unanimously ruled that Teoh, an aide of Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, committed suicide as a result of pressure from aggressive and continuous questioning by anti-graft officers.
The five-man panel wrapped up its report on June 15 after having heard testimony from 70 witnesses in its bid to unravel the mysterious circumstances behind Teohs death.
The 30-year-old DAP political aide was found dead on July 16, 2009 on the fifth-floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after he was questioned overnight by MACC officers at their then-Selangor headquarters on the 14th floor.
The coroners inquest had in January returned an open verdict ruling out both suicide and homicide some 18 months after Teohs death.
The government was then forced to establish the RCI, which first met in February, with two terms of reference: to probe how Teoh plunged to his death and to look into MACCs investigative methods.
But Teohs family has rejected the commissions verdict and are currently mulling a judicial review of its findings.
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