Police refute Justo’s claim, say never asked silly questions
KUALA LUMPUR: The police have refuted a claim by Swiss whistleblower Xavier Andre Justo that he was forced to openly declare that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is a good man.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh said the police never asked Justo to do that and nowhere in Justo's statement, which they had with them, had Justo said what he claimed he was asked to state.
"Clearly, it can be seen that the aforesaid questions supposedly posed by us are not relevant to the investigation at all and, thus, it will be silly of us to have asked such questions.”
"Whether Justo ‘was a bad man, liked money and Tarek (Tarek Obaid, co-founder and CEO of Petro Saudi International) and PetroSaudi were nice' and the question on ‘Najib was the best PM ever' has got no relevance to the case being investigated. The Malaysian Police Force has got more professionalism than that," he said.
Amar Singh said the police investigation focused on the alleged theft of data relating to PetroSaudi or 1MDB and the subsequent attempt to sell the data, extort to or from third parties with the intent to undermine the security of the country.
"(Investigation) not on your character or who is the best prime minister. So, Justo ... don't lie," Amar Singh said in a statement in response to Justo's claim in a local newspaper on Wednesday that Malaysian cops forced him to say ‘Najib was the best PM (Prime Minister)'.
Amar Singh, who was the deputy director of the CID (legal and investigations) at that time, said the police focused their investigation on the apparent sale of data or extortion of money for third parties with a view to undermining the security of the nation.
He said that on Dec 15, 2015, he led two other officers to the remand prison in Bangkok to obtain a statement from Justo under the mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
"A total of 57 questions forwarded to Justo focused on issues such as PetroSaudi; (British investigative journalist) Clare Rewcastle Brown and relating to the security of the country. The statement was recorded by the Thai authorities with an English-speaking interpreter and we were present as witnesses," he said.
On June 22, 2015, Justo was arrested at his home in Koh Samui, Thailand, after PetroSaudi officers filed a complaint that he tried to blackmail the firm for 2.5 million Swiss francs (about RM11 million) over documents allegedly stolen from the company.
In December 2016, Justo was one of the thousands of foreign convicts who were pardoned by the King of Thailand, King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bod indra de bay a var an gkun.