Police will investigate disclosure on ex-PetroSaudi executive Xavier Justo ( photo ) by the Thai police and ex-journalist Lester Melanyi's statement against the Sarawak Report website from the angle of attempts to overthrow the government undemocratically.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who said this today added the police probe will focus on this aspect.

"This will be the investigation done by police. It will be on the disclosure by Thai police at their press conference last week and the other on Lester Melanyi's statement," Khalid said.

He told reporters in Shah Alam the investigation will be done under Section 124 of the Penal Code with regard to 'activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy' and that police have already started their task.

Section 124 (I) of Penal Code reads that anyone who disseminates false reports or makes false statements which are likely to cause public alarm shall be punished with an imprisonment term which may extend for up to five years.

 

Asked on the credibility of Lester, Khalid said the police will establish the authenticity of ex-Sarawak journalist's statements  during their investigation.

 

Khalid declined to answer other 1MDB-related questions, saying that the appropriate entity to answer such questions was the special multi-agency task force now probing 1MDB.

 

“I am not the spokesperson of the task force,” said the IGP who is a member of the task force.

On The Edge Media Group which have defended their series of reports on 1MDB  and its controversials dealings, Khalid said the newspaper had the right to do so.

 

“They ( The Edge ) can stand by anything. They have experts. But we also have experts too. Their experts and our experts are different matters.”

Credibility issues

The Edge Media Group had on Monday announced that it was standing by its reports on the beleaguered 1MDB and said it would cooperate with the authorities.

This followed a show-cause letter issued by the Home Ministry asking why action should not be taken against the weekly for publishing false news.

The Edge and whistleblower website Sarawak Report had published exposes on the 1MDB based on information provided by Justo. The authorities claim that information was tampered with before being used by the two.

The Edge has claimed that it had its experts verify that the information had not been tampered with before being used.

Lester ( photo ), meanwhile, emerged last week to claim that he had helped arrange the fabrication of Justo's documents on behalf of Sarawak Report in an attempt to taint the prime minster by linking state-owned 1MDB to dubious deals.  

Sarawak Report has denied all such claims by with the latest development being an intent to sue expressed by them.

Lester video confessions and press statements to date have been plagued by credibility concerns but he had pledged to clear the air over his allegations once and for all next week.    

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