Putrajaya wants to help facilitate the hearing of ongoing cases in France linked to the Scorpene submarines scandal, deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong said today.
Speaking to reporters in Parliament, Liew confirmed he had met two French lawyers who will file a legal suit in France on behalf of NGO Suaram over the controversial 2002 purchase of two Scorpene submarines.
“Yes, they came. We are hoping that Malaysia can do more in order to facilitate the cases in France.
“We are looking at the cases in the French courts at the moment,” he said, adding he could not reveal further details of the meeting.
Malaysiakini previously reported that the two French lawyers – William Bourdon, who was blacklisted from entering the country by the previous BN administration, and his colleague Apoline Cagnat – were in Kuala Lumpur from Feb 10 to 12.
At the time, it was reported that they had met with attorney-general Tommy Thomas over the controversial Scorpene deal, in which top Malaysian officials were accused of receiving millions in kickbacks from European shipbuilders DCNS (now Naval Group) and Thales.
“At the moment, this Scorpene case is being investigated by the MACC.
“So it’s no longer within the purview of the defence ministry. It’s being handled by the MACC,” Liew said.
In July 2017, the French courts had indicted political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of then-defence minister Najib Abdul Razak, who oversaw the purchase of the submarines from Thales and DCNS in 2002.
Suaram’s civil suit had led to the indictment of several officers from Thales for allegedly paying the kickbacks.
Past corruption
On a related matter, Liew said the defence white paper due to be tabled in Parliament this year was partly to address issues of corruption in the past, including in asset procurement.
“That is one of the many reasons why we were given this mandate. The idea is to provide policy direction so that we will have a clearer idea of what are the strategic challenges we are facing.
“If we understand the strategic outlook, then we can come to the next stage to decide the direction of procurements,” he said.
Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu previously said the white paper, which outlines the armed forces’ current capabilities and development plan, was expected to be tabled in September.
Among others, Mohamad said the document was drafted using guidelines from Japan, New Zealand and Australia to further strengthen the military.
mkini
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