A-G no power to ‘indemnify’ anyone, says Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Attorney-General (A-G) Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has no power to strike a deal with anyone facing criminal charges for being caught in a sticky political situation, Parliament was told today.

De facto law minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, said this in reply to the DAP parliamentary chief, Lim Kit Siang, who pressed for the government’s response to a former senior cop’s claim that ongoing police investigations against Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik would likely go nowhere.

Nazri also said he needed time to look into allegations by former KL CID chief, Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, that the public prosecutor had dropped its case against Abdul Rahim, who was slapped with a RM40 million graft charge in the 1990s, in exchange for the latter stepping down from all government, statutory and party positions.

Abdul Rahim, a former Umno vice-president, was Malacca chief minister from 1982 to 1994 and had quit all public posts after also being charged with the statutory rape of an underage girl at the time.

The charges were later dropped by the public prosecutor over lack of evidence.

He was back in the spotlight last week after openly admitting he was part of the “Datuk T” group behind a sex video scandal said to depict Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in a tryst with a China call girl.

Mat Zain had weighed in yesterday on the current controversy and said Abdul Rahim was unlikely to be charged for his role in the video due to Abdul Gani’s influential position today as the A-G.

The former cop accused Abdul Gani of having once hijacked an investigation against Anwar back in 1999 in order to conceal his role in “indemnifying” the former Malacca chief minister from being prosecuted for corruption.

Mat Zain said that the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) back then had recommended that Abdul Rahim be prosecuted for four counts of corruption — three under the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance and one for making a false statutory declaration, punishable under section 193 of the Penal Code.