PKR, which has been caught by surprise by the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister I Mansor Othman’s aide by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Jan 3, is still collecting information on the matter before taking any action on the person involved.

Penang PKR vice-chief Abdul Halim Hussein said the party has virtually no information on the case except what is being reported in the newspapers.

“We will contact the person (who is allegedly Mansor’s aide) to get his side  of the story before taking any action or any investigation,” said Abdul Halim, who is state legislative speaker.

Abdul Halim was asked if the party was planning to suspend the aide pending investigation, at a press conference he attended with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

They were accompanied by state exco member Abdul Malik Kassim, who said “we will release the information in due time”.

Mansor, who is also state PKR chief, is currently away on Umrah in the Middle East and will be back on Thursday.

They were responding to news reports that a district officer, an aide to one of Penang’s two deputy chief ministers, and another individual were arrested last Thursday for bribery.

The trio were reportedly arrested during a MACC sting on the night of Jan 3 at a restaurant in Seberang Perai while one of them was attempting to bribe a woman with RM30,000.

The woman was reported to have accused a top civil servant of sexually harassing her and had filed an official complaint. The alleged inducement was meant to silence her.

Following this, the trio were arrested for 24 hours to have their statements recorded. They are currently out on police bail and it is uncertain when they will be charged in court.