The documents related to Lembaga Tabung Haji's purchase of land from 1MDB cannot be classified under the Official Secrets Act unless it is done with the proper authorisation, a former attorney-general says. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, May 9, 2015.Before investigating those responsible for leaking the Tabung Haji-1MDB land deal documents under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), police first have to determine whether the documents were classified under the Act, said former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib .
"The next question is, who classified it as secret," he said, adding that under the law there must be an officer authorised to classify such documents.
Abu Talib said this in response to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar's statement yesterday that investigators were looking into using the OSA against the perpetrators behind the leak.
Abu Talib, who was attorney-general for 13 years until 1993, said whether a crime had been committed under the OSA could only be determined after investigation.
"But for the purpose of investigation, the case can be classified under the OSA," he added.
Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar (pic, below) has also raised concerns over the use of the OSA in the case, saying the investigations was an example of how the OSA can be "misused for the wrong reasons".
"In this instance, any whistleblower must be protected without the threat of the OSA being used against them," Akhbar said in a statement yesterday.
"Instead, priority should be given to investigate whether any irregularities occurred in the business transactions, if the purchase was made according to standard procedure and if the price paid by Tabung Haji was reasonable and fair value,” Akhbar added.
Khalid said the classification was made after studying a report lodged by Tabung Haji deputy chief executive officer Datuk Johan Abdullah.
He said police would call up those identified in the case, including Tabung Haji top officials, for questioning soon.
Abu Talib said there is nothing to stop the police from reclassifying the case if other offences were found to have been committed in the course of their probe.
"At the end of the day, one must remember it is the public prosecutor who decides whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute a person for a crime," he added.
Johan lodged a police report yesterday over what he said was inaccurate data published in the blog "The Benchmark", which alleged that the company had purchased two plots of land at 1MDB's Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) project for a total of RM772 million in cash, when in fact the pilgrim fund only bought one at a “discounted” price of RM188.5 million.
In the police report, Johan said the 67,954 sq ft of land was purchased to build service apartments and denied that Tabung Haji was in a process of procuring a Signature Tower as alleged in the anonymous blog.
He said the investment was done in accordance with relevant guidelines and had received proper approval.
The development of the service apartments will be undertaken by Tabung Haji Properties Sdn Bhd.
The anonymous blog had alleged that Tabung Haji purchased two plots of land using depositors' funds and bought the land at a far higher value than what 1MDB paid, which was denied by Tabung Haji.
According to the blog, 1MDB Real Estate Bhd obtained the land for the construction of TRX at RM64 per sq ft from the federal government.
Johan also stated in the report that the leak of the confidential documents did not prove that the proposal was approved, and was against the Tabung Haji Act 1995 and its policy.
1MDB has attracted controversy as it sits on a sizeable debt of about RM42 billion, and the government has admitted that the state-owned investment arm is facing cash.
Meanwhile, lawyer Haresh Mahadevan said the police must explain why was there a need to classify a sale and purchase agreement where savings of pilgrims were used.
"The police should find out who is the minister or the person delegated the power to classify such documents," he said, adding that the deal raised more questions than answers.
Haresh was one of several lawyers who sucessfully obtained an acquittal for two primary school teachers for unauthorised possession of copies of last year's primary school achievement test (UPSR) examination papers.
Subbarau Kamalanathan and Murugan Palanisamy were charged under the OSA which carries the penalty of a jail term of between one and seven years.
The Seremban Sessions Court last month freed them without their defence called.
One of the reasons was that the prosecution did not produce in court a gazette whether the Education Minister had delegated powers to the examination syndicate head to classify examination papers as "sulit".
- TMI
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