UMNO information chief Datuk Isham Jalil has taken a pot shot at his Perikatan Nasional (PN) counterpart Datuk Seri Azmin Ali for accusing him (Isham) and other Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders of being the masterminds behind the arrest of Bersatu leaders on corruption charges.
The former PKR deputy president who defected to Bersatu at the height of the Sheraton Move conspiracy after he was expelled by his party apparently has a bone to pick with Isham when he claimed that Isham had issued a warning of a new court cluster from Bersatu and PN.
“Azmin said this because I had given a ‘warning’ that they (Bersatu leaders) would become a court cluster,” penned Isham who is also an UMNO supreme council member on his Facebook page.
“Azmin, I have said that you and your friends will become Court Cluster 2.0 since before the GE15 (15th General Election); try to watch the videos of my speech last year.”
Delving further into the matter, Jalil who assumed his current position in UMNO in November 2022 following the resignation of Shahril Hamdan claimed that at that time Azmin did not notice the long arm of the law closing in on them “because maybe your tribe was busy siphoning billions of the rakyat’s money”.
“Now you can’t run away anymore as you’ve to answer in front of the court. Don’t blame anyone when you are caught with bribery. Karma and kifarah (retriburion) are true,” added the former special officer to now-incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Yesterday (March 8), the New Straits Times reported Azmin as claiming that the letter of demand issued by BN to him and PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is testament of BN using its status to threaten the opposition with legal actions.
The letter of demand was over a claim that recent charges against his party leaders were masterminded by BN chairman and UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
The former Gombak MP further noted that the statement from Bersatu and PN leaders on UMNO abusing its current status in the unity government were facts that had already been stated in the police report made by Bersatu’s Armada representative on Feb 15 regarding the conspiracy to cripple Bersatu and PN through false accusations and slander.
In his statement which NST cited, Azmin had referred to facts which included Zahid’s announcement of a new court cluster which would come from Bersatu and PN, as quoted in a news report from a Malay language daily.
Another fact was that Isham had also issued a similar warning on the matter which meant that “they (UMNO) already knew that prosecution would take place even before it happened”. – March 9, 2023
