It’s blackmail, not tampered 1MDB emails, DAP tells ‘low IQ’ ministers

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar says the government has come to the conclusion that former PetroSaudi International (PSI) director Xavier Andre Justo, who is now in Thai police custody, had tampered with emails and documents related to 1MDB based on ‘logical assumption’. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, June 30, 2015.

The insistence of Malaysian ministers that former PetroSaudi International (PSI) director Xavier Andre Justo had tampered with confidential emails shows the "low IQ" of officials here, since the case is being investigated for blackmail in Thailand where Justo is in police custody, DAP said today.

Ministers should thus stop shaming the country with foolish and stupid responses over Justo's arrest, where the emails have led to exposes over debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said.

Lim instead urged the prime minister and his ministers to respond to issues concerning the fund and its RM42 billion debt in a calm and responsible manner.

Lim was referring to the latest statement by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who said the government had come to the conclusion that former PetroSaudi International (PSI) director Xavier Andre Justo, who is now in Thai police custody, had tampered with emails and documents related to 1MDB based on "logical assumption".

"It's very simple, the person arrested was Xavier and the documents seem to be from him.

"So, we cannot assume anything else (other) than he had tampered with the documents," Wan Junaidi had said.

In a statement today, Lim said the deputy home minister's remarks implied that there was no need for facts or evidence, or even information from the Thai police about the outcome of their interrogation of Justo.

"All that the Malaysian ministers need to do is to make the ‘logical assumption’ from thin air that there had been ‘tampered emails’," Lim, who is also the Gelang Patah MP, said.

Lim questioned Putrajaya's line of reasoning on the tampering of emails, given that the police report PSI had lodged in London on March 1 had not been about tampered emails but about the hacking into servers and taking of confidential emails which were then made public.

Lim said the claim of tampered emails was only being used in Malaysia but not anywhere else, adding that in Thailand, police have said that Justo had been arrested for blackmail.

"In any event, the IQ of Malaysian ministers does not seem to be high enough for them to understand that there could be no blackmail unless the emails referred to are true and genuine, as there could be no blackmail if the emails had been ‘tampered’ with or doctored," Lim added.

The DAP lawmaker also questioned why Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had said Malaysian police wanted to question Justo.

"Are the police finding opportunities to question Justo on alleged ‘tampered emails’ which the Thai police are not interested at all, so as to justify all the recent ministerial hullaballoo over 1MDB’s ‘tampered emails’?" he asked.

Justo was arrested in Thailand last Monday for blackmail and extortion over confidential information regarding PetroSaudi's 2009 joint venture with 1MDB.

Claims that he had tampered with emails taken from PetroSaudi were made by pro-government newspaper the New Straits Times, which had quoted an unnamed spokesperson from private cyber security firm Protection Group International (PGI).

PGI reportedly said initial investigations into the leak emails showed that Justo had tampered with them to paint a negative picture of 1MDB.

- TMI