(Harakah) - The former director of the Anti-Corruption Agency has strongly denied an allegation in two UMNO-owned dailies claiming that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had ordered him to issue a statutory declaration clearing the former deputy prime minister of the so-called RM3 billion bank account allegation.
Following the report in New Straits Times and Berita Harian on June 21, Abdul Razak Idris said the instruction to issue the statutory declaration came from the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in order to avoid a subpoena by Anwar pertaining to the latter's defamation suit against NST in 2009.
The MACC was formed in 2009 to replace the ACA. Its chief commissioner in 2009 was Ahmad Said Hamdan, who retired in 2010 and was replaced by Abu Kassim Mohamed.
"I was not instructed by Anwar but was asked by MAAC chief commissioner in order to avoid he or his officers from being subpoenaed by Anwar as plaintiff witnesses in his civil suit against NST at the end of 2009," Razak was quoted as saying upon his return from Indonesia in response to the latest report.
The NST on June 21 quoted Razak as saying that he had been directed by Anwar to issue his statutory declaration.
In their joint response issued to Harakahdaily, PKR vice president N Surendran and member of its political bureau Sivarasa Rasiah said Razak's denial was proof of the papers' character assasination campaign carried out "with the knowledge and approval of prime minister Najib and UMNO who own these two newspapers".
"UMNO and its media have now been caught red-handed making a false statement of a very serious nature about Anwar.The opposition leader has through his solicitors today issued a demand to the NST and Berita Harian newspapers to publish with equal prominence Abdul Razak Idris' denial that he was ordered to make the SD by Anwar," said the duo.
The NST is separately facing two defamation suits, one from Kelantan Menteri Besar Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat for the paper's report labeling him an "infidel", and another from Australian senator Nick Xenophon who the paper accused of being "anti-Islam" based on a fabricated statement.
