The Edge committed a crime by withholding evidence

Salleh Said Keruak says The Edge should have handed all the evidence on 1MDB and PSI to the police instead of breaking the story in their paper.

PETALING JAYA: Instead of choosing to print serious allegations of corruption between 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and PetroSaudi International (PSI) involving billions of ringgit, The Edge could also have very well handed all the evidence in their possession to the police so investigations could begin, said Salleh Said Keruak.

He said that by withholding the evidence of an alleged crime, The Edge themselves had committed a crime and could therefore no longer demand the protection of a whistleblower.

In his latest blog posting, the Sabah State Speaker said, “And by not reporting what they viewed as a crime means The Edge itself had committed a crime.

“So under these circumstances you cannot claim to be a whistleblower and demand protection that a whistleblower would get.”

He also questioned why the paper only chose to hand over the evidence they had to the police a day after they had submitted it to the special task force that was convened to probe allegations of corruption in 1MDB.

“Why was the evidence given to the police only on the second day and was it a duplicate of that same evidence that was handed to the Special Task Force”, he asked.

“This needs to be confirmed because the public does not know whether it is two sets of the same evidence or two sets of different evidence,” he said, adding that the only way to find out would be for the special task force to hand its evidence to the police so that a comparison could be made.

He also noted that the Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who himself sits on the special task force, had said the police had its own forensic experts who would be conducting a forensic test on the evidence to establish if it had been doctored.

“If the Special Task Force does the same then there is not only a danger of duplication but also of contradiction. And this will confuse an already confusing situation,” he cautioned.

Apart from the IGP, the special task force is headed by the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, the head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Attorney-General.