Reporters complain Anwar brought in foreign lawyers over Scorpene case

PR has alleged of corruption in Malaysia’s purchase of two Scorpene submarines from a French firm. — Reuter pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — The Young Journalists Club today lodged a police report against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers Chua Tian Chang, Datuk Mahfuz Omar and R. Sivarasa for bringing three foreign lawyers to the Parliament to discuss the Scorpene submarine issue.

The federal opposition have claimed of corruption in the multibillion purchase of the submarines in 2009.

Club president Dzulkarnain Taib said the organisation did not want foreign interference in the country’s affairs.

“What is the opposition’s right to bring foreign lawyers to give a briefing in Parliament?

“What is SUARAM’s (Suara Rakyat Malaysia) locus standi in the case?” Dzulkarnain said after lodging a report at the Dang Wangi police station here this evening.

The former Suara Keadilan editor identified the three lawyers as William Bourdon, the French lawyer who was deported from Malaysia earlier this year and Joseph Breham and Oliver Netzer.

The journalist also asked about the ties between the opposition and SUARAM as well as the funds to bring the three lawyers here.

Apart from the 100-member strong club, the others who came along to show support for the report were pro-Barisan Nasional groups such as Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM), Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (PERKASA), Lembaga Kesedaran Pencegahan Jenayah (LKPJ), Lembaga Pelindung Kebajikan Pengguna Malaysia (LPKPM) and Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM).

Dzulkarnain said his current job now was to monitor the media in the interest of the country, adding he supported the current government.

Several groups and Putrajaya have focused on human rights group SUARAM after it revealed that former political aide Abdul Razak Baginda had sold Malaysian naval secrets to France.

In April this year, the Tribunal de Grand Instance in Paris began its inquiry into SUARAM’s claim that French naval firm DCNS had paid some RM452 million as a bribe to Malaysian officials to obtain a contract for two submarines. SUARAM had filed the complaint with the French courts in 2009.

In a May 30 press conference in Bangkok, Breham had revealed that a classified government document on the Malaysian navy’s evaluation of the Scorpene submarines it was then planning to buy had been sold by Terasasi (Hong Kong) Ltd to DCNS for RM142 million.

Abdul Razak, a former think-tank head who was at the centre of the 2006 investigation into the murder of former model and translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, is listed as a director of Terasasi with his father, Abdul Malim Baginda.

Weeks after the revelation, SUARAM came under close scrutiny of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) due to its foreign funding sources, and the government agency said last week that it plans to charge the activist group for its “misleading accounts”