Police to probe Bank Negara staff if OSA letter genuine

The police will investigate Bank Negara Malaysia staff over the leak of a classified letter to The Wall Street Journal if the document is found to be genuine.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the first step would be determine if the letter, which is categorised under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), is authentic.

Once this is established and if the letter is found to be genuine, he added the police would check who had access to the document in order to narrow down the possible suspects.

"This is a serious matter and we will not leave any stone unturned," he told Malaysiakini.

Asked if investigations would also focus on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members, who might have procured the letter from certain sources and leaked it, he replied: "We are not discounting any possibilities."

"We will investigate all those whom we believe can shed light on the matter," he said, adding that no arrests have been made so far in connection with the case.

Khalid also urged WSJ Asia chief editor Tom Wright to help facilitate police investigations by disclosing how he had obtained the document.

After the letter was revealed last week, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said Bank Negara governor Muhammad Ibrahim had lodged a police report against WSJ.

However, Najib said he could not confirm if the letter was genuine.

The publication, which has been accused of being part of the campaign to oust Najib, had tweeted a copy of the letter, and this was later re-tweeted by Wright.

The letter is from Bank Negara to PAC chairperson Hasan Ariffin.

The document supposedly confirmed that Good Star Limited was owned by tycoon Low Taek Jho, who is better known as Jho Low.

This contradicted the government’s assertion that Good Star, which has since been dissolved, belonged to former 1MDB joint-venture partner PetroSaudi International.- Mkini