Sister-in-law accuses ex-MACC top man Bahri of abusing power

Former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) special operations division director Bahri Mohd Zin has been accused of misusing his power in a tussle over family assets.

However, a source close to the former special operations division director denied the allegation.

“Bahri has been advised by his lawyer not to make any media statements on this for now as it may affect court proceedings should he file a defamation suit,” the source told Malaysiakini.

Meanwhile, inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters today that a report was lodged on this in Kelantan and investigations have been completed.

“We have handed the investigation papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for further action,” Khalid said.

At a press conference in Subang Jaya this morning, Bahri's sister-in-law Noraihan Che Ali claimed that when Bahri (photo) was still the special operations division director, he had instructed a team from the division to ransack her house in Kota Baru, in January last year.

Noraihan, who is director of Kolej Islam Sains dan Teknologi (Kist), claimed that documents related to her college and other businesses were confiscated.

She said the officers told her they were “doing their job and following orders from their boss”.

“I asked them who their boss was, is it Bahri? They said they were just following orders. That's why I assumed it was him,” she said.

Assets renunciation letter

According to Noraihan, her late husband, Muhamad Zamly Abdullah, who was the owner of Kist and the elder brother of Bahri’s wife, Noor Haslina Abdullah, passed away in September 2015, leaving behind assets worth RM100 million and debts amounting to RM85 million.

Following this, she claimed a dispute erupted between his siblings, Noraihan and the couple's nine-year-old son.

Noraihan claimed that the will read out at the time was different from the one left with her husband’s lawyer.

“They tried to force me to sign a 'surat penolakan harta' (renunciation of assets letter) and even tried to get my son’s thumbprint,” she alleged.

Noraihan claimed that when she refused to sign the letter, the team from MACC’s special operations division raided her house.

Subsequently, Noraihan was told by the MACC in Putrajaya that the confiscated documents were with the Kota Baru MACC, only to be told by the latter that the documents were instead in Putrajaya.

“They treated me like a ball - I had to go here and there,” she said.

As a result of the documents being confiscated, Noraihan claimed that her business was affected and she, together with her family, were also afraid to return to their house after the raid.

She then decided to lodge a police report with the Kota Baru police district headquarters last February and another police report with the Precint 7 police station in Putrajaya a month later.

However, Noraihan claimed that the police did not act on the reports.

“The police did come to my house to take photographs of the places that were ransacked but after that, I didn’t hear anything from them,” she said.

Urging the police to investigate her report and for the MACC to conduct an internal investigation into her claims, Noraihan said she only wanted justice for herself and her son.

Meanwhile, Noraihan’s lawyer, Ahmad Zaharil Muhayar, who was present at the press conference, questioned why no action was taken by the police although a year had passed.

“We want to know whether a family dispute can be handled by the MACC and not by the police. There are many other family disputes, so why did MACC only get involved in this one?” he queried.

When contacted, MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Azam Baki declined to comment on the issue.

Earlier this month, Bahri had landed in the spotlight when he claimed that he opted for early retirement because he was disappointed with the manner in which MACC handled the SRC International case.-Mkini