I never gave order to unfreeze tycoon’s account, says ex-MACC chief

Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Shukri Abdull has maintained that he gave no order to lift the freeze on the account of a tycoon linked to 1MDB.

(FMT) – In a statement, Shukri said he had never conceded to any directives from ministers or even the prime minister in any of his investigations.

“The same goes for this case. I never gave any instruction to my officers to lift the freeze on the account.

“If it is true that the freeze was lifted, it was not on my orders. In my investigations, I only conceded to the instruction of the deputy public prosecutor, not the instruction of other parties,” he said.

This comes after de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan yesterday claimed there were letters to show that there was interference in the matter by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng.

He said there were minutes of a meeting held on Dec 5, 2018 which stated that Mahathir had written a letter asking for the freeze on the tycoon’s account to be lifted, and that Lim also made such a request to the attorney-general (AG).

Following this, then-AG Tommy Thomas wrote to Lim on May 31, 2019 stating that the freeze had been lifted.