Witness
says Mahathir ordered halt to anti-corruption probe
KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 (AFP) -
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad personally ordered the country's
anti-corruption agency to drop an inquiry into an official who later became
central bank governor, a trial witness said Monday.
Shafee Yahaya, the agency's head at
the time, was giving evidence for the defence in the sodomy trial of former
deputy premier and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Shafee said the incident happened
in June 1998 -- three months before Mahathir sacked Anwar -- after the
Anti-Corruption Agency raided the office of the director general of the
Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and found a large sum of money.
In June 1998 the EPU director
general, who was not named in court, was Ali Abul Hassan Sulaiman. The economic
agency reported directly to Mahathir.
Ali Abul, who has now retired, was
appointed central bank governor in September 1998 after the previous governor
and his deputy -- seen as close to Anwar -- resigned on August 28.
On September 1, 1998, Mahathir
imposed controversial capital controls and the next day sacked Anwar from both
his posts.
Anwar was detained on September 20
after leading anti-government protests. In April 1999 he was jailed for six
years for abuse of power and could face another 20 years if convicted of
sodomy.
Anwar says he was framed because he
threatened to expose corruption and was seen as a political threat to Mahathir.
The government denies any plot.
Shafee, questioned by Anwar's lead
counsel Christopher Fernando, said Mahathir called him up after the raid
"and I was told off."
"His words were 'How dare you
raid my senior officer's office?'
"I was taken aback. I replied:
'This was based on an official complaint by an aggrieved party and I did as
officially required'."
Shafee said Mahathir then accused
him of "trying to fix" the official. "I replied that he is wrong
and also as a Muslim it is a big sin to fix anybody.
"The prime minister then asked
me 'Did Anwar ask you to raid the office?'
"I said: "No, it was
based on an official complaint'."
Shafee said he told Mahathir he
informed Anwar about the complaint against the official and the fact that a
raid was planned.
He added he told Mahathir that
Anwar asked him whether he had cleared the action with the prime minister.
"I told Anwar that I did
mention it to the PM but the PM then had kept quiet."
After Mahathir scolded him, Shafee
said he closed the case against the head of the Economic Planning Unit.
"I was highly disillusioned
and I told my wife that I wanted to resign but she advised me to finish my
contract."
Questioned further, Shafee said he
was disillusioned with Mahathir "for interfering with my duties."
Fernando's questioning was
frequently interrupted by Judge Arifin Jaka, who questioned its relevance to
the sodomy charge.
In angry courtroom exchanges,
Fernando accused the judge of "stifling" him and Arifin ticked off
the lawyer for rudeness.
The judge barred Shafee from answering
a question about whether the Economic Planning Unit chief had been able to
explain "a big sum of money" found in his drawer.
Shafee said Anwar had neither
ordered the raid nor ordered that the case be dropped. He said Mahathir called
him (Shafee) to order the case dropped.
Asked again about relevance,
Fernando replied: "I'm trying to show another instance of bad blood
(between Anwar and Mahathir)."
Arifin said the defence had to show
that Mahathir was involved in fabricating evidence against his then-deputy, as
Anwar claims.
"As politicians there will be
a lot of bad blood and disagreements. You have to show that Anwar is fixed
up," the judge added.
The case continues.