Monday August 17, 2009
MACC denies using Gestapo tactics
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has denied using Gestapo tactics when arresting Wong Chuan How, the special assistant to a Selangor exco member on Friday.
“MACC officers never pushed Wong until he fell. Wong would not have been injured if he had followed directive and cooperated in the investigation,” MACC said in a statement yesterday.
It said initial investigations found that several aid programmes using the allocation of the Sg Pelek state sssemblyman could not be implemented although they had been approved and the cheques given to Wong.
This made Wong the main suspect and the MACC decided to arrest him on Aug 5 but telephone calls and SMSes sent to him went unanswered.
“Finally, on Aug 13 Wong sent SMSes to MACC officers saying he was prepared to meet them at the Sg Pelek state assemblyman service centre at 9am on Aug 14,” said the statement.
On Friday, a team of MACC officers met Wong and his two lawyers at the said place. The MACC officers showed them their authority cards.
“He was told that he would be taken to the MACC office in Putrajaya for further investigation as case documents were kept there.”
Wong, through his lawyers, then sought the MACC officers’ permission to lodge a police report on his arrest before following them to Putrajaya.
The MACC offficers agreed but told Wong that he was under their custody and had to go in their car to the police station.
“However, when Wong who was not handcuffed was about to get into the car, he suddenly pushed the officers’ hands and tried to escape.
“The officers had to stop Wong from escaping and hugged him from behind as he was struggling. He then fell on the five foot way of a shop,” the statement added.
Kit Siang calls MACC ‘Gestapo’, asks for controls
By Neville Spykerman
Kit Siang has likened the MACC to the infamous Gestapo used by Adolph Hitler to silence critics and weed out any resistance to Nazi rule in Europe. - TMI file photo by Choo Choy May
The special assistant to Selangor executive councillor Ronnie Liu for the Barisan Nasional-held Sungai Pelek constituency was injured during a scuffle with MACC officers outside his office yesterday.
Lim said the MACC officers who when to meet Wong at his service centre in Sungai Pelek had gone back on their word by trying to arrest him.
An appointment had been made earlier for Wong to meet the MACC as a witness in ongoing investigations into alleged impropriety in state allocations. But five officers turned up at the service centre said he was a suspect and wanted him to follow them to their office in Putrajaya.
“How did he become a suspect when he was previously just a witness and this shows they are not sincere in their investigations,” the Ipoh Timur MP told reporters.
In light of what happened to Teoh Beng Hock who was found dead last month at the MACC office, two lawyers with Wong insisted he lodge a police report at the Sungai Pelek police station before he followed them to Putrajaya and the MACC officers agreed.
However, three unidentified men tried to handcuff and drag Wong to their car as he walked out of his service centre.
There is no question about Wong resisting arrest because the men did not identify themselves, Lim said.
In the struggle, Wong fell to the ground and injured his right leg while struggling with the men.
Lim noted that MACC had broken their promise again and called on MACC advisory panels to rein in the MACC which seem to have even greater powers than the police.
He also pointed out that the MACC seems to be overly focus on Pakatan Rakyat while ignoring the ongoing RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo’s alleged RM24 million mansion and the RM10 million donation received by MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat.
Wong, whose right leg was bandaged and was seen moving with the support of a walker, confirmed he did not know who the three men were and said he has no confidence in the MACC.
“The MACC is not independent and a tool which is being used by the Barisan Nasional to topple the Selangor government.” said Wong, adding he was not even found guilty yet but was treated like a criminal.
Wong's boss Liu took the MACC officers to task for refusing to identify the three men involved in grabbing his assistant.
“I asked several officers to provide us their names but they themselves claim they did not know who they were,” Liu said, adding he did meet the men at the police station later.
Liu added there is no doubt the MACC was being selective in their prosecution.
He claimed no investigations has been done on the previous Barisan lawmakers who had spent RM500,000 in annual allocations, in just two months, prior to the March 8 general elections last year.
MACC arrests Ronnie Liu’s aide
Liu at a recent press conference. Standing behind him is Wong. — File pic
SHAH ALAM, Aug 14 — A special assistant to Ronnie Liu was detained by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) this morning for alleged misappropriation of funds allocated for the Selangor exco's constituency.
Liu, speaking to The Malaysian Insider, said he was outraged by the arrest, claiming that the MACC had informed him that his aide, Wong Chuan How, was only to be questioned as a witness and not a suspect.
The graft busters had been scheduled to question Wong at the Sungai Pelek service centre this morning but the special assistant was told that he was a suspect instead and was to be escorted back to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.
"First the MACC said they only wanted to question him as a witness, now they're saying he's a suspect and want to detain him and question him in Putrajaya. This is wrong," he said.
Wong then refused to go with MACC officers and insisted on lodging a police report, claiming the attempt to detain him was illegal. This led to a scuffle between him and the MACC officers.
Liu said his lawyers have already been instructed to go to the Sungai Pelek police station to try and resolve the matter.
According to Liu, Wong injured his leg during thescuffle and was escorted by the police to the Serdang hospital where they were trying to get him hospitalised in an attempt to avoid MACC detention.
Wong had lodged a police report against MACC for allegedly assaulting him.
The arrest, said Liu, was nothing more than part of an ongoing attempt by the Barisan Nasional-led federal government to weaken the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government through systematic harassment.
DAP officials say Wong was expected to be released on bail but he may still be hospitalised overnight.
His lawyer, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said Wong is expected to surrender himself to the MACC headquarters in six days' time for questioning.
posted by wan zaharizan b wan zan at 8:29 PM
2 Comments:
Whatever it is. It is not fair and biased. Do you think that the MACC would give the same treatment if the suspect was DS Najib's or PM's brother? They would interview him in his own office.
true Rahmat but then again the question here is fair reporting. If the Print Media carries the agenda of the government you hope that the internet would be free and fair but still MI is not. She too carries the agenda of a hidden hand
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