My children threatened with 5 years jail, Dr M claims

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has decried political victimisation against him and his family, claiming that one of his children has been threatened with imprisonment.

While he did not mention which of his children was alleged to have been threatened, his claim came after the MACC confirmed that it was investigating his eldest son, Mirzan.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has yet to show proof for his accusations that the former had amassed wealth by abusing his power while in office.

“Instead, my child has been accused and threatened that, if he does anything that the prosecutor considers to be contrary to the accusation, he will be jailed for five years. There was not even mention of being brought to court.

“That is reformasi. (They) talk about draconian authorities when out of power. When they become the government, they do worse to their political enemies.

“Those who support (them) become friends. Even court trials can be halted,” he said today.

Mirzan Mahathir

Yesterday, the MACC said it had questioned Mirzan a day earlier and ordered him to declare all his assets in Malaysia and abroad within 30 days.

It said this is to facilitate investigations on the Pandora Papers and his business activities involving the sale and purchase of GLCs.

The commission had started investigations in August 2022 against all entities named in the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers, as well as related entities, it said.

Mahathir contrasted his child’s situation with that of government supporters who were also listed in the leaked documents.

“There are many government supporters in the Pandora Papers such as Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Selayang MP William Leong and International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, who are not being investigated let alone being charged,” he said.

He also noted that there are a number of prominent local businesspersons named in the documents.

The Pandora Papers and the Panama Papers are two separate exposes by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with partners around the world, including Malaysiakini.

In the Panama Papers, Mirzan was listed as having registered a British Virgin Islands firm - Sergio International Ltd - in 2002 but the firm was deemed inactive in 2006 and struck off.

However, when contacted, Mirzan's representative denied his involvement in Sergio International Ltd or the firm's relations with the Crescent Group of Companies.

Mirzan was at the time the CEO of Crescent Capital, a holding and financial advisory company.

In 2013, in another joint investigation with the ICIJ, Malaysiakini reported that Mirzan was among some 1,500 Malaysians with secretive offshore firms, revealed in documents leaked to the journalist consortium at the time.

In that leak - dubbed “Secrecy For Sale” - Mirzan was shown to own Crescent Energy Ltd, Utara Capital Ltd and Al Saad Investments Pte Ltd, all based in Labuan.

While owning offshore companies is not illegal, there has been public pressure for greater transparency of companies in trusts set up in tax havens to combat tax evasion and money laundering. - Mkini