Absent from 1MDB forfeiture list, PAS Youth wants apology from critics

PAS MUKTAMAR | PAS Youth has urged critics who previously accused the party of accepting funds from 1MDB to apologise.

The party's Youth chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin said this was because no individuals associated with the party were listed in MACC's civil forfeiture suits, which seek to recover RM270 million in 1MDB-linked assets.

The suits, which were announced yesterday, were filed against 41 local individuals and groups.

"[...] We urge any individual, including ministers, who previously slandered PAS to apologise to the party," Khairil Nizam told a press conference on the sidelines of the 65th PAS Muktamar at Sukpa Stadium in Kuantan today.

"If they are gentlemen, please apologise. If they respect the people, please apologise.

"This was an issue played up against PAS since before GE14 and there were many people who believed the claims," said Khairil who earlier announced his line-up for the 2019-2021 term.

Newly minted MACC chief Latheefa Koya said yesterday that all money sought had been distributed to the respondents from former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal AmBank account.

Of the RM270 million, RM212 million (78.5 percent) was being sought from Umno divisions.

Other political entities named in the suits include Johor Bahru BN, MCA Wanita, MCA Pahang, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and Sabah’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

In February, Latheefa's predecessor Mohd Shukri Abdull (below) confirmed that the MACC has yet to find any 1MDB funds ending up in PAS' official bank account.

The finding was made after MACC investigators scrutinised the Islamist party's banking details during their probe into a claim by Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown that PAS leaders allegedly received RM90 million from Umno.

Rewcastle-Brown, who first broke the story of the 1MDB scandal, claimed in the Aug 6, 2016 article that Najib was wooing PAS ahead of the general election, and that RM90 million had flowed into the accounts of its top leaders.

In a separate article in February this year, Sarawak Report had also alleged that Umno had given RM2.5 million to PAS to fund its 14th general election seat deposits.

However, she never claimed that the funds PAS allegedly received were from 1MDB.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang sued Rewcastle-Brown for libel in London on April 21, 2017 over the initial RM90 million allegations.

However, they eventually reached a settlement in which she received RM1.4 million in compensation and was allowed to maintain the article.

The settlement reached in January this year also led PAS central committee member Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Aziz to admit that a recording of him saying PAS leaders had received Umno funds was authentic. - Mkini