Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has come to the defence of Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd, saying that the senior officer was perhaps “naive” on the Australian legal system.

“This matter arose since 2016… Wan Ahmad mentioned the real source of the money was from the sale of a home to finance his child’s education in Australia, but the law of that country requires a transaction of over A$10,000 to obtain special permission.

“So maybe Wan Ahmad is a little naive on the legal system in Australia.

“But he has explained the matter to the authorities and also personally to myself. We accept his explanation in very good faith,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

The Australian daily Sydney Morning Herald reported two days ago that a bank account belonging to Wan Ahmad (photo), which contained over A$320,000 (RM971,800), was frozen. 

Australian Federal Police had alleged that the money in the account was from proceeds of laundering or criminal activity.

The report also noted that the senior officer did not try to recover the funds, claiming that court action would be too expensive.

Zahid, who is also the home minister, told Bernama that it was common practice for police personnel to make asset declarations each year to inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun, who in turn declares his assets to the minister.

On Friday, the IGP affirmed that the money in the Wan Ahmad’s Australian account was clean, saying that it meant to fund the education of the CID chief’s children in the country.

Fuzi added that the money in the account originated from the sale of Wan Ahmad’s Shah Alam house for RM700,000 (A$260,770).

"Thus it is baseless to assume that the source of the money was from questionable origins or that Wan Ahmad was involved in any form of indictable offences," he said.

The MACC had said that it would wait for a report to be lodged before conducting an investigation into the matter.

DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh took issue with the stance, however, noting that the ongoing probe being conducted by Australian police was enough for the commission to commence its own.