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Key Highlights
Zafrul now in PM’s inner circle
MACC hunts for Rafizi’s ex-aide
FAM fails final appeal
Zafrul now in PM’s inner circle
Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz is experiencing a meteoric rise in PKR.
Less than a year after joining the party last August, he is now officially a member of party president Anwar Ibrahim’s inner circle.
Zafrul, who has had limited political experience, is now Anwar’s senior political adviser, replacing Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin.
Earlier in January, the former investment, trade, and industry minister was also appointed to PKR’s political bureau.
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MACC hunts for Rafizi’s ex-aide
The MACC is on the hunt for former economic minister Rafizi Ramli’s ex-aide James Chai, who is wanted in relation to a graft probe on Putrajaya’s RM1.1 billion deal with British semiconductor giant Arm Holdings.
The MACC put out a wanted notice for him, prompting Chai - who said he helped prepare slides for government briefings as well as helped Arm with a brief transition period after Rafizi and his team quit - to question why they did not reach out to him.
Chai - who is working in the UK - said the MACC’s methods were excessive.
The MACC, in turn, claimed that the former aide had blocked one of their investigators who had reached out on WhatsApp.
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FAM fails final appeal
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), partly upheld the sanctions imposed by Fifa against the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) and seven “heritage” players accused of using fraudulent documents to play for Harimau Malaya.
The CAS said it found the 12-month ban against the players was “reasonable and proportionate”, given they were complicit in falsifying their eligibility documents. This was despite FAM’s representations that the players had a limited role in preparing the documents it requested.
However, the CAS panel ruled that the ban should apply only to official matches and not all football-related activities - meaning the players can now resume training with their respective clubs.
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