PARLIAMENT De facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri tonight confirmed that Ahmad Shazalee Abdul Khairi, the deputy public prosecutor attached to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's special operations division, has been transferred internally.

According to her, Shazalee no longer worked under the division, which has been entrusted to probe the controversial transaction of state-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd, but still remained with MACC.

In her winding-up debate of Budget 2016, she complained that the government's good faith has been misconstrued.

"Recently, he has been approved for promotion to grade L54 by Judicial and Legal Services Commission.

"So, the Attorney-General's Chambers approved his promotion, and allowed him to continue with MACC, but he no longer works under special operations division," she told the Dewan Rakyat.

Since he is still with MACC, any division or unit, including the division he had serviced previously, can call on his service anytime if needed.

The internal transfer would allow Shazalee to be promoted to grade L54, which could not be done if he had stayed with special operations division, Nancy added.

"This is a good intention from the government to promote him by getting him out of the division, so he has an opportunity to be promoted.

"This good intention, however, is interpreted with malice by certain quarters," she said.

Malaysiakini reported the transfer of Shazalee, who was involved with the remand of several key witnesses in the SRC International probe.

She also confirmed that Shazalee's secondment to MACC was extended on June 30 and supposed to run until 2017.

His previous position was an "open position" which does not allow for promotion, she emphasised.

Due to the media coverage, she said, the transfer of a civil servant which should be kept secret had to be revealed to public now.

The decision was made to counter the irresponsible allegation by certain quarters, Nancy added.

AG denies Shazalee transferred out

Malaysiakini , which first broke the news, did not mention that the prosecutor was "transferred out of MACC".

In his text message to Malaysiakini , Attorney-General Mohd Apandi Ali ( photo ) denied Shazalee was transferred out.

"I have checked. Your story on the transfer of the said DPP out of MACC is false," he said.

Shazalee had previously been arrested by the police on Aug 1 and his home and office raided.

The raid came amid a slew of actions widely seen to be disruptive of MACC’s investigation into SRC International.

The company had allegedly transferred RM50 million, RM42 million of which supposedly ended up in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank account.

Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Previously, MACC’s special operations director Bahri Mohd Zin and its strategic communications director Rohaizad Yaakob were transferred on Aug 10 to the Prime Minister’s Department.

Bahri had been speaking up against the alleged harassment that his officers faced while Rohaizad was supposedly transferred for receiving a memorandum from opposition politicians on the 1MDB issue.

However, they were later transferred back to MACC after it had a meeting with Chief Secretary to the Government Ali Hamsa and Public Service Department director-general Mohamad Zabidi Zainal.