Mahfuz to meet Deepak on immunity

The PAS leader says a team of lawyers will participate in the Wednesday meeting.

KUALA LUMPUR: PAS vice president Mahfuz Omar and a team of lawyers will meet controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan next Wednesday to discuss his immunity against prosecution in exchange for incriminating evidence against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.

“The historic meeting that I promised Deepak, this 1Malaysia meeting which all of Malaysia is waiting for, will be held here on Feb 6 at 11am,” Mahfuz told reporters today at the PAS headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut.

Early this month, Deepak made a media statement seeking the guarantee of immunity as a state witness should the Pakatan Rakyat bloc win the 13th general election.

“I hope Deepak will come fully prepared to convince me that the information he has requires a guarantee for his immunity,” Mahfuz said.

Deepak had offered to make his expose during the Jan 12 People’s Uprising Rally in Kuala Lumpur, but Pakatan rebuffed him and he showed up at the rally as an ordinary participant.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua afterwards told FMT that Pakatan could promise only to set up a mechanism to guarantee justice for him.

Mahfuz, however, has several times expressed his willingness to discuss the issue with Deepak.

At today’s press conference, he said he was not yet making any promises and was not even sure what kind of protection Deepak was seeking.

“I don’t know what he means by ‘guaranteed immunity,’’’ he said. “So that is why I want to meet him. If it is protection in terms of the law, we already have the Witness Protection Act.

“So I am not promising immunity now, but I will bring legal advisors with me to our meeting to evaluate what he tells me, and we will discuss the next step we can take.”

Deepak has alleged that he bribed Najib’s family in order to become a party to the national defence education centre (Pupahanas) deal with Selangor Umno Wanita chief Raja Ropiaah Abdullah.

He has also alleged that Rosmah had asked him to arrange for a reversal of a statutory declaration by private investigator P Balasubramaniam that linked Najib to Mongolian translator Altantuyaa Shaariibuu.