Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas claimed that Anwar Ibrahim never cautioned him about alleged weaknesses in the prosecution’s case against Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in the Yayasan Akalbudi corruption case.
Speaking during the debut episode of Malaysiakini and KiniTV’s new podcast, Straight Talk, Thomas said that while he had met Anwar several times during Pakatan Harapan’s first tenure in power, the case was never a topic of discussion with the PKR president.
“His party was a very strong constituent party in the administration I served. He was very much in the public news, Anwar. And I met him a few times.
“We met each other, you know. I’m surprised, if that was his view, that he never came and said to me, ‘Look, Tommy, I’ve been talking to people, and maybe your case against Zahid is not strong’,” the former top prosecutor said.
Likewise, Thomas said no one contacted him - presumably after Anwar became prime minister - to get his views on the matter.
Thus, he was surprised when Anwar described the charges as questionable.
“So, the first comment I’ll make is that he was a member. It was his administration. And now, four years later, (for Anwar) to say that, I’m a bit surprised,” Tommy said.
He was responding to Anwar’s remarks at a talk with the Milken Institute in Singapore in Sept 2023, in which the prime minister said the charges against Zahid - who is his deputy prime minister - were questionable and not professionally carried out while implying it was politically motivated.
Anwar, however, has maintained that the decision to withdraw all 47 charges against Zahid was the sole discretion of Thomas’ successor as attorney-general, Idrus Harun.
‘AGC doesn’t pick and choose’
Meanwhile, on criticism that during his time as attorney-general, he only went after Umno politicians, Thomas said this was not something he did on purpose.
“So there’s a lot of criticism by Umno or whatever, why I only charge Umno people or whatever. It wasn’t my decision.
“The Attorney-General’s Chambers cannot choose which cases to prosecute. We can’t question why we received file A instead of file B. Our job is to act on the files forwarded to us by the MACC or the police,” he explained.
Among the Umno leaders hauled to court while Thomas was attorney general include Zahid and former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Najib is currently serving six years in prison after being convicted of abuse of power involving RM42 million in the SRC International case.
He is also on trial for abuse of power and money laundering charges involving RM2.27 billion from 1MDB. - Mkini
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