SHAFIE RUSHED TO HOSPITAL FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, IT WILL BE ON YOUR HEAD – LAWYERS SLAM MACC FOR ‘NO LEGAL BASIS’ ARREST

KOTA KINABALU – Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 2 (QEH2) here due to high blood pressure last night.

Confirming the matter, Parti Warisan Sabah secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr said the party’s president was taken to the hospital at about 11.30pm after he was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

“He was brought to the QEH2 last night for a medical check-up, and results showed that (his blood pressure was high).

“He is still under doctors’ observation this morning, but (Shafie) is in good condition,” Loretto told Berita Harian when contacted.

Shafie, who is Semporna Member of Parliament, was detained by the MACC at 9pm on Thursday after he was called in to give a statement at the commission’s Sabah office as part of its probe into the misappropriation of federal funds for Sabah’s rural development projects.

Shafie is scheduled to be brought to the magistrate’s court here after the Friday prayer for a remand order.

ARREST HAS NO LEGAL BASIS

MEANWHILE, according to The Malaysian Insight:

A PKR lawyer has slammed the anti-graft agency for its liberal use of arrests and remand procedures in breach of legal norms, adding that the arrest of Parti Warisan Sabah president Shafie Apdal was done without basis.

N. Surendran said the former rural and regional development minister is not a flight risk and neither is there any suggestion that he will interfere with other witnesses in the ongoing probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into alleged embezzlement of funds by the ministry in Sabah.

“Under the law, arrest and remand to facilitate investigations should be the exception, not the norm.

“This legal position applies to all criminal investigations into all types of offences, with the exception of suspects who are a flight risk or where it is believed the suspect could interfere with witnesses.

“In other words, the legal burden is upon the arresting authority to show why they cannot investigate without resorting to arrest and remand,” Surendran said in a statement today.

He said MACC has the right and duty to carry out an investigation but arrests and remands should only be resorted to in very limited circumstances when absolutely necessary.

“In breach of this basic legal principle, the MACC seems to have resorted to automatic arrest and remand.  These arrests are now being routinely carried out under the glare of television and news cameras,” the Padang Serai MP added.

NST / THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT