The MACC has arrested two top Umno youth leaders as well as the Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) youth chief.

According to sources, those arrested were Warisan youth chief Mohd Azis Jamman, Umno youth information chief Jamawi Jaafar, and Tawau Umno youth chief Ariffin Kassim.

MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Azam Baki (photo) confirmed the arrests.

Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking confirmed Mohd Azis' arrest when contacted.

Jamawi, who is also Tenom Umno youth chief, and Mohd Azis were detained at the Sabah MACC headquarters in Kota Kinabalu, while Ariffin was detained at the graft buster's office in Tawau.

Jamawi is currently serving as a special officer at the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

However, it is learnt that the arrest is in regards to his tenure as an aide to Warisan president Shafie Apdal when the latter was rural and regional development minister.

Jamawi is said to have been transferred to the Communications and Multimedia Ministry after Shafie was axed from the Cabinet in July 2015.

One of Mohd Azis' lawyers, Loretto Padua Jr, told Malaysiakini that his client had his statement taken at the Kota Kinabalu MACC office at Jalan Sulaman, before he was "secretly" brought to the commission's office at the state federal administrative complex.

"I was told that around 2pm he was brought out from this building secretly.

"Only at around 4pm, when one of the lawyers queried from the front desk. he was told that Azis has not been here since around 2pm," Loretto said.

Mohd Azis' legal team then advised his wife to lodge a police report over this. 

"Before they went to lodge a report, he called me around 5pm telling me that he is at the other building. He said he had been arrested."

Mohd Azis (photo) is expected to be brought to court to be remanded tomorrow.

"MACC never cooperates with us, they never tell us things. So we have to wait from morning at the court tomorrow," added Loretto, who is also Warisan secretary-general.

Mohd Azis was Semporna Umno Youth chief before he left the party and subsequently joined Warisan.

He is the latest Warisan leader to be arrested in MACC's probe into funds allegedly misappropriated from projects that were supposed to be carried out by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry.

Shafie had helmed the ministry before he was sacked in 2015 during the cabinet reshuffle.

The MACC detained Warisan vice-president Peter Anthony on Thursday night, and he was remanded the next day for a period of five days.

Additional reporting by ALYAA AZHAR