‘Mastermind wanted to attack mufti with acid’

Cop: But suspects refused and only agreed to torch his car

KANGAR: It was a chilling plot to splash acid on the face of Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

Fortunately, it ended in just his car being torched.

Perlis CPO Senior Asst Comm Datuk Noor Mushar Mohamad, who disclosed this, said someone had offered a large amount of money to two men to splash acid on Mohd Asri’s face but they refused, and only agreed to damage his car.

One of the men, an unemployed 36-year-old, was arrested by police at his home in Arau on Saturday and confessed to torching the car.

“The suspect said he carried out the act with a friend, known as Mie Tomoi, for RM500,” the police chief said yesterday.

SAC Noor Mushar said according to the suspect, Mie Tomoi took him to meet three other people on a mission to injure the mufti.

“One of them is believed to have offered to pay a large sum of money to him and Mie Tomoi to splash acid on Mohd Asri’s face but they did not agree to it.

“They only agreed to set Mohd Asri’s car on fire for a certain sum,” he said.

Another man, known as Dik E, is said to have handed the two a backpack, jacket, plastic bottles and helmets.

The suspect and Mie Tomoi then rode on the latter’s motorcycle to a petrol station in Kodiang, Kedah, where they filled the plastic

The suspect said he carried out the act with a friend, known as Mie Tomoi, for RM500.

Senior Asst Comm Datuk Noor

Mushar Mohamad

bottles with petrol, before heading to the mufti’s house.

The suspect claimed that Mie Tomoi splashed petrol on the mufti’s car, but he was the one who lit the fire and smashed the rear windshield with a rod.

After the job was done, the two returned home after burning the items they had used.

“Several days later, the suspect met a person at a convenience store in Kangar and asked for RM5,000. However, the person only paid him RM500,” said SAC Noor Mushar.

The suspect, whose four-day remand order was granted by the Kangar Court yesterday, also revealed that five more people were involved.

It was reported that Mohd Asri’s official car was burnt on March 22 by two men who were caught doing so in a CCTV recording from a neighbour’s house in Jalan Persiaran Wawasan here. — Bernama