Dr M’s counsel unsure who will be called to testify

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange (forex) losses will resume its hearing on Tuesday.

It was, however, unclear which witnesses will be called to testify at the proceeding, said lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla, who is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad counsel for the RCI.

“Up until now, we do not know who they (the RCI panel) will call as witnesses.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing much that I can comment on the inquiry as we are left in the dark,” he said yesterday.

At the last hearing on Aug 24, lawyers for Dr Mahathir and former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim questioned the credibility of former BNM assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid, who had testified before the RCI on Monday.

Anwar had, in a statement earlier, said it was unfair to leave him out of the hearing as he must be given the opportunity to respond to “malicious insinuations” and “prejudicial allegations” made against him by others. He added that the RCI on the losses suffered by BNM due to forex trading in the 1990s would be unjust if he was not present at the hearings.

Anwar, who was finance minister in Dr Mahathir’s cabinet in the 1990s, made particular mention of a statement attributed to Murad, which he said had incriminated him.

“I have read the witness statement of Abdul Murad Khalid, where in paragraph 37, he alleged that on a flight to Hawaii in early 1994, he briefed me on the BNM forex losses and that I had said that if those losses were made public, I would have to resign as finance minister.

“His malicious insinuation is clear, that is, that I had implied a cover-up was needed,” Anwar said in the statement.

“I remain very concerned that I’m not allowed to be present despite repeated requests by my lawyers. I need to be there based on the fact that my name has been mentioned a number of times by certain witnesses,” said the statement.

The scandal took place during Dr Mahathir’s term as prime minister from 1981 to 2013.

Anwar is only able to follow the proceedings through limited contact with his lawyers, who include R. Sivarasa and Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar.

He is serving a five-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh Prison following his sodomy conviction in February 2015.

To date, there is no comment as to whether Anwar will be called as witness to the inquiry.