Mat Zain: MACC got facts wrong on Mohd Noor

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) got its facts wrong in rebutting the statement of a retired senior police officer that Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail will not prosecute former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah for his racist remarks because Mohd Noor had cleared Gani of wrongdoing before.

"I regret to say that MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed has got his facts all wrong. I am afraid he has just made the matter more complicated," former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim said in a statement.

Abu Kassim had dismissed Mat Zain'sclaim that Mohd Noor (left) was appointed as a member of the MACC complaints committee as a "reward" for clearing Gani and former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan of fabricating evidence in opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's "black eye incident".

Mohd Noor, together with former Federal Court judges Abdul Kadir Sulaiman and Mohd Noor Ahmad, were part of a three-man independent panel set up by MACC to decide on the investigation of alleged evidence fabrication by Gani and Musa.

Abu Kassim had said that Mohd Noor was in fact in favour ofcharging both Abdul Gani and Musa but was over-ruled in a majority decision of the other two members, who did not want to endorse any charges on grounds that the witness statements were inconsistent.

‘Contradictory statements'
However, Mat Zain quoted a news article in the March 12, 2009 issue of The Star that said Abu Kassim's explanation was contradictory as former de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz had told Parliament that the decision not to charge Musa was a 3-0 decision. Only the decision against charging Gani was a 2-1 decision.

Mat Zain also pointed out that former MACC chief Ahmad Said had on March 1, 2009, said the judges had all individually found the allegation of evidence fabrication to be baseless, which was also reported byThe Star.

"From the above statements by both Ahmad and Nazri, it becomes obvious that Abu Kassim (left) had distorted the facts that Mohd Noor was all for charging both Musa Hassan and Abdul Gani Patail.

"How could this be possible when both Ahmad Said and Nazri confirmed that all the three so-called independent panel members cleared Musa Hassan?

"Unless Mohd Noor Abdullah now dares to stand up and declare that Ahmad Said lied when he gave the press statement on March 1, 2009 and Nazri had given a false statement in Parliament on March 11, 2009," Mat Zain said.

He said it was "in the public domain" that the dissenting judge who wanted to charge Gani was in fact Abdul Kadir while the other two members, including Mohd Noor Abdullah, were not in favour of the move, thus a 2-1 decision.

If Abu Kassim's statement that Mohd Noor Abdullah was for charging Gani was indeed true, then coupled with Abdul Kadir's decision, it would have been a majority decision in favour of charging the attorney-general.

That would mean the allegation of evidence fabrication was true and those responsible should immediately be arrested and charged in court, Mat Zain added.

Mohd Noor Abdullah had come under the spotlight after he warned Chinese Malaysians of a backlash after they voted against the ruling coalition and had supposedly "betrayed" the Malay Malaysians.