Shukri denies taking orders to defreeze accounts

Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Datuk Shukri Abdull denied taking orders from any prime minister or Cabinet ministers to defreeze accounts of suspects under investigation.

“When investigating, I only follow the deputy public prosecutor’s (DPP) directive.

“I don’t take orders from any unrelated parties,” he said.

He said this in response to a claim by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng had interfered in the MACC investigation into the 1MDB scandal involving businessman Tan Sri Lim Soon Peng.

On Monday, Takiyuddin highlighted in Parliament the former premier’s alleged handwritten note on Soon Peng’s letter of representation, asking MACC to defreeze his bank account.

Soon Peng’s bank accounts had been frozen then, pending investigations into RM4mil worth of transactions linked to 1MDB.

“Also in this particular case, I did not issue any orders to my officers to defreeze the account,” said Shukri.

Takiyuddin pointed out that Lim had also penned a note on the letter, asking then attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas to look into the request.

Tommy had subsequently replied in a letter to Lim on May 31 last year, confirming Soon Peng’s account had been unfrozen after he had agreed to return the 1MDBlinked funds associated with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Shukri said, if it was true that the businessman’s account had been unfrozen, he had never issued any orders to defreeze it.

Shukri reiterated that he only took orders from the DPP, not any other parties.