Police have obtained an arrest warrant for Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown, who has been accused of being part of a conspiracy to topple Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
The warrant is in connection with offences allegedly committed under Section 124B and 124I of the Penal Code.
In a brief statement this evening, CID director Mohmad Salleh said the police would also proceed with applications to place her on the Aseanapol wanted list as well as the Interpol red notice.
Section 124B states: Whoever, by any means, directly or indirectly, commits an activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years.
Whereas 124I states: Any person who, by word of mouth or in writing or in any newspaper, periodical, book, circular, or other printed publication or by any other means including electronic means spreads false reports or makes false statements likely to cause public alarm, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years.
The arrest warrant comes in the wake of police arresting several individuals from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Among them was former MACC adviser Rashpal Singh, who supposedly met Rewcastle-Brown in London.
Those arrested have since been released but inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said more would follow and did not rule out the possibility of Bank Negara governor Zeti Akthar Aziz and MACC number Mohd Shukri Abdull being questioned as well.
Rewcastle Brown, Zeti and Mohd Shukri have been accused by certain quarters of being among those involved in a conspiracy to oust the prime minister.
Also on the list was The Edge media group owner Tong Kooi Ong.
Both Sarawak Report and The Edge have published a slew of damaging articles concerning 1MDB.
I have been asked for response on this latest move by the Malaysian authorities to attempt to extradite me by issuing a warrant for my arrest, which they say they will pass to Interpol.
My first comment is that this action could hardly be more counter-productive on the part of a government that is seeking to assure the world that it is a sane democracy.
My action has been to publish information, which some in power do not like. Yet, the ‘crime’ they are accusing me of is of “an activity detrimental to democracy”. It is they who are being detrimental to democracy by suppressing free speech and arresting people for questioning people in authority.
I am still unclear whether the agents of the Prime Minister are accusing me of “forging false documents” or obtaining documents through “criminal leakages”, since they have simultaneously accused me of both in the past few days and have been rounding up all sorts of senior investigators to try and find out who might have passed me such leaks.
They need to make up their minds about this before they bring their charges and they really ought to produce some substantive and convincing evidence of their other accusation that I am part of some international plot intent on falsely accusing the Prime Minister of crimes for reasons unknown.
I am merely an investigative journalist who has been doing my job, by unravelling one hell of an international scandal involving people in high places and the grand larceny of public monies.
It’s as simple as that – no plot and no vested interest. The interest of the public is my motivation and duty. Conversely, the public are at liberty to reach their own conclusions over what has motivated the recent actions of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who has spent the past few days, sacking, removing and arresting just about anybody who has been officially engaged in investigating the scandal I have been reporting on – the missing billions from 1MDB. Moreover, he has not just attacked my blog and myself, but other reputable news organisations, closing down two papers in Malaysia.
If the Prime Minister had nothing to hide in this matter and if my reports were false there would be numerous more orthodox and far less disruptive methods of dealing with me than sacking his Deputy Prime Minister; sacking the AG; closing down the PAC and dismissing members of his cabinet. He could simply have issued libel proceedings or he could have produced evidence (e.g. correct bank statements and transfer documents) that would have shown my reports to be untrue.