Bruno Manser Fund slams Malaysia for allowing Taib to go free

It also calls on the Malaysian judiciary to reopen a criminal investigation against Taib.

(FMT) – Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to reopen its probe against Sarawak Governor and former chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. 

In a statement today, BMF also called on the Malaysian judiciary to reopen a criminal investigation against Taib, who has been the target of accusations alleging massive corruption and abuse of state assets to his own benefit.

“We are shocked to learn that MACC chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull claims that Taib never made decisions just because he left the room during meetings.

“It is wrong to assert that Taib’s inferiors acted without instructions when granting Taib family members timber concessions and land leases for oil palm plantations,” said BMF’s executive director Lukas Straumann in a statement.

Straumann called for the MACC to dig deeper.

The statement claimed a seven-year investigation by BMF identified hundreds of companies across the globe with “dodgy financial connections” to the Taib family.

On Tuesday, the MACC chief had said the anti-corruption body had initiated 15 separate investigations and that “there was truth in some of the allegations made against Taib“.

However, he claimed that no charges could be pressed against Taib because he never chaired a meeting and “somebody else“ made the decisions.