Najib: Up to A-G to prosecute NFCorp directors

By Clara Chooi

February 26, 2012

The PM said today that under the Constitution, only the A-G has “the right to make the decision in this matter.” — Picture by Choo Choy May

SEKINCHAN, Feb 26 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today it is up to the Attorney-General (A-G) to decide whether to charge National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) directors with criminal breach of trust (CBT), stressing that not all investigations result in prosecution.

The prime minister said the A-G holds absolute power under the Constitution to decide if a case has sufficient evidence to be accepted in court, failing which the latter could also return the matter to the police for further investigation.

“I am saying this on the principle that assumptions cannot be made on what is going to happen (next) because it is up to the A-G ... and only he has the right to make the decision in this matter,” Najib told reporters after attending a function here today.

He added that prosecutions cannot be decided upon indiscriminately as the case must first satisfy legal provisions before it is brought before the court.

“We cannot make the assumption that all investigations end with prosecution,” he said.

CCID director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan yesterday confirmed that the police would recommend that the Attorney-General’s Chambers charge NFCorp’s directors with CBT.

But in a statement here today, NFCorp denied any CBT elements in its loan agreement with the government, even accusing the police of “unfairly” pre-empting the charge.

The company even sought to question the motives of Syed Ismail for recommending CBT charges against it yesterday, claiming the police had failed to understand the case’s “dynamics of the facts and the law”.

“NFCorp therefore wishes to enquire the police if, in their investigations, they had paid enough consideration to the fact that there is total lacking of the elements of dishonesty in this case, which is a primary ingredient of CBT and cheating?” the firm said in the statement.

NFCorp, which operates the national cattle-farming project, is chaired by federal minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s husband, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail. Their three children also hold executive posts in the company.

The NFC hit the headlines after it made it into the Auditor-General’s Report last year, and has continued to hog the limelight after it was linked to Shahrizat and her family.