AUTHENTICITY: If true, action will be taken, says Nazri
(NST) - MINISTER in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz will leave it to the authorities to investigate the authenticity of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin's latest expose.
He said it was Raja Petra's right to make any revelation since Malaysia was a democratic country.
"We will have to assess the authenticity of Raja Petra's latest expose. If what he said is proven to be true, then action will be taken against those who commit wrongdoing," he said yesterday.
Raja Petra had written about his first meeting with private investigator P. Balasubramaniam. He had named several people, including Subang member of parliament and co-founder of Suara Rakyat Malaysia Sivarasa Rasiah and lawyer M. Puravalen.
Nazri said the allegations would be looked into.
"It is still too early for us to make any conclusion. All these need to be carefully investigated."
In Kuala Lumpur, the former private secretary to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim urged Puravalen to explain whether he had prior knowledge about the arrest of political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.
Anuar Shaari yesterday said Puravalen should clarify whether allegations by Raja Petra that the lawyer knew of Razak's arrest in connection with the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu were true.
"I urge Puravalen to explain how and from whom he received this information.
"As far as we know, this kind of information (regarding arrests) is classified," he said.
Raja Petra had, two days ago, claimed on his blog that the statutory declaration linking the high-profile murder to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was orchestrated by some individuals, including several opposition leaders.
Raja Petra, who is in self-exile in London, claimed that Balasubramaniam was paid to make the statutory declaration with Anwar's knowledge.
Anuar questioned whether the person who leaked out the information on the arrest to Puravalen was the same person who made him volunteer to become Razak's lawyer.
Efforts to contact Puravalen over the past two days have proven unsuccessful, while Sivarasa has yet to make a statement, having said two days ago that he would reserve comment over the issue until he had read the blog posting.
