Sworn statement on Gani’s alleged misdeeds out due to Putrajaya inaction, says former top cop

by Lionel Morais
The Malaysian Insider
November 12, 2013

Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim has revealed the alleged wrongdoings of Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail after Putrajaya failed to act on the retired senior police officer’s statutory declaration which contained a litany of complaints against the Attorney General.

Mat Zain’s initial revelation about the meeting with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah on Gani’s failings only amounted to two pages of his 31-page sworn statement.

He promised more disclosures soon and said he was also mulling the possibility of having the statutory declaration (SD) tendered in court.

“Since my SD was made in accordance with the Statutory Declaration Act 1960 it can be used in any judicial proceeding, civil or criminal. In that manner the SD will be considered a public document,” the former Kuala Lumpur CID chief told The Malaysian Insider.

“Putrajaya had received my SD more than a month ago but they have not acted on it. They have chosen to remain silent.”

Copies of his SD, which was filed on October 7, were sent to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, Solicitor General Datuk Idris Harun and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

“In my cover note, I informed them that I reserve the right to take whatever action necessary within the law without informing anyone,” said Mat Zain.

“I also stated that I reserve the right to make public the SD through any member of parliament.

“There was no action from any party and that is why I released parts of the SD.”

He added that the main purpose of his SD was to convince the prime minister to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate all the alleged wrongdoings of the AG which were stated in the document.

Part of SD was on what transpired in a meeting between Dr Mahathir, Shafee, former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Ramli Yusoff, Dr Mahathir’s former political secretary Matthias Chang and Mat Zain at the former prime minister’s residence in Seri Kembangan on August 10, on the third day of the Hari Raya festivities.

The topic of discussion was Gani’s alleged wrongdoings, including fabrication of evidence in the infamous “black eye” incident of 1998 involving former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Mat Zain, who was the investigating officer in that case, had informed Dr Mahathir that Gani, then a senior deputy public prosecutor, had allegedly fabricated evidence to suggest that the black eye injury was self-inflicted.

They had also discussed Gani’s other alleged instances of “misconduct”, including the highly publicised case of Pulau Batu Puteh – the island off Johor which the International Court of Justice awarded to Singapore following a legal dispute in 2008.

Mat Zain told The Malaysian Insider that he did not initiate the meeting but that he received a call on the first day of Hari Raya from Ramli who told him that Shafee had wanted to meet the two of them.

“I met Ramli on August 10 and the two of us went to Shafee’s office-cum-residence in Bukit Tunku where the lawyer told us that Tun M wanted to see us. I was surprised.”

He said that prior to that meeting with Dr Mahathir, the last time the two met was 15 years ago when the latter was prime minister.

“As for Shafee, this was my first meeting with him.”

Yesterday, Shafee denied suggestions that a meeting in Dr Mahathir’s house was a plot to remove Gani.

The Umno lawyer confirmed that he was at Dr Mahathir’s house, but it was to pay his respects during Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

On the conspiracy to remove Gani, he said, “Tun was definitely not involved in this rubbish”.

Shafee, however, declined to go into specifics until he read the SD, adding that he may hold a Press conference later today.

Shafee said, irrespective of what was in the SD, there was no such thing as a plot or conspiracy against the Gani because there was no reason to do that.

“Either on the black eye incident or the issue of Batu Puteh case, absolutely no reason,” he said.

“If you look at Batu Puteh, what has that got to do with Mat Zain? He was a police officer, not an international lawyer. Why should anybody discuss that issue with him?”

Dr Mahathir also decided to keep mum until he has read the SD.

In an immediate response, Mat Zain shot back: “I admit that I am not an international lawyer. In fact not even a local lawyer. But you don’t need to be a lawyer or for that matter you don’t need to have any paper qualification to tell the truth.

“More will be revealed soon,” he said, adding that he will wait until Shafee makes a statement on the issue. – November 12, 2013.