Zahid: No need for CID chief to go on leave

The deputy prime minister believes that the explanation given by Wan Ahmad Najmuddin regarding the RM1 million in his bank account in Australia is true and based on proof.

Zahid Hamidi says CID director Wan Ahmad Najmuddin has followed all the procedures required of him.

PUTRAJAYA: Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd, whose Australian bank account containing close to RM1 million has been frozen by the authorities there, will remain in his post and need not take leave, says Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Zahid, who is also the home minister, said Najmuddin had followed all the procedures required of him.

“Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim has stated clearly that Najmuddin gave a full explanation of the matter.

“We take it as true and I believe the explanation given by Najmuddin was based on proof.

“The IGP has seen the sale and purchase agreement and the document on the financial office transaction in Australia,” he told a news conference after his ministry’s monthly assembly and presentation of excellence awards.

He added that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and any other agency were free to investigate Najmuddin.

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) recently reported that Australian authorities had frozen nearly RM1 million in a bank account there belonging to Najmuddin.

The report said the Australian Federal Police (AFP) suspected a “flurry of suspicious cash deposits” into Najmuddin’s Commonwealth Bank “Goal Saver” bank account, which had been lying dormant since it was opened in 2011.

Last Friday, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said said an internal inquiry had cleared Najmuddin in 2016 of any wrongdoing after he produced valid documents to show the funds in his Australian bank account were the proceeds from the sale of his house in Shah Alam valued at RM700,000 (A$260,770 based on the exchange rate at that time).

However, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has called on Najmuddin to go on leave until the matter is settled.

C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel said this was to safeguard the integrity of the police leadership. -FMT