Former Umno minister says ex-PetroSaudi director’s arrest seems planned, to clear Najib

Former Utusan Malaysia chief editor Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin believes the arrest of Xavier Andre Justo inThailand is merely a ruse, planned to 'clear' Prime Minister Datk Seri Najib Razak's name on the 1MDB issue. – The Malaysian Insider pic, June 28, 2015.

The arrest of former PetroSaudi Internatiomal director Xavier Andre Justo appears planned, as if to clear Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's name, former information minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin said today.

Zainuddin, who is populary known as Zam, said there were some disputable  sequence of events in how the arrest was highlighted in the pro-government English daily, New Straits Times (NST).

"All this points to a plan to bring the NST reporter to Bangkok to cover the news on Just. NST was the only local media that went there.

"They were brought to Bangkok for the coverage and they are the ones that published it first," he told The Malaysian Insider.

On Thursday, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also questioned the arrest saying that it was "suspicious" and did not rule out the possibility that it was planned.

He said the Malaysian government may be involved in the arrest in Thailand and that "clever propagandists might be hard at work to blacken my face".

NST, in its front-page report said that Justo had allegedly tampered with PetroSaudi documents which was eventually used by whistleblower site Sarawak Report in its expose on state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Zainuddin, a former veteran newsman with Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, said the report made the arrest seemed to be aimed at clearing Najib's name.

"It was all planned, published as though to clear Najib," he said.