The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has denied the claims that were made by Siti Nurul Hidayah, secretary of the Youth Power Club and Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s aide.
MACC said it will not bow down to any threats, claiming it holds evidence proving the claims made by Siti Nurul Hidayah are false.
Datuk Norazlan Mohd Razali, investigations director of MACC, told FocusM via a text message that her allegations about being surrounded and threatened are “fabrications.”
“She was accompanied by two female officers throughout the entire process of recording her statement,” he said, adding that her presence was purely voluntary as a primary witness that had given important statements in assisting MACC’s investigation of the case.
Following this, Norazlan said that MACC has made a police report about these allegations, calling for a transparent investigation from the police, and noted that MACC is ready to offer its cooperation to the police on this matter.
The claims, made by Siti Nurul Hidayah on a video on Bersatu.TV’s Facebook page, alleged that five MACC officers had surrounded her, and used harsh words and threats on her while ordering her into stress positions. She also claimed that she was made to answer questions about Syed Saddiq’s personal life, with the intention being to pressure her to confess information that implicated him.
She had been called in to give a statement on the case involving over RM250,000 being stolen from Syed Saddiq’s home at 11.30am at MACC headquarters in Putrajaya, and said she was only allowed to leave at 11.30pm. She also said that she was not allowed access to her lawyer, who was waiting for her in the lobby.
“I believe I was summoned to help with an investigation as a witness and not a suspect. Such actions are to scare me so I can give them the answers that they want and not my real answers,” she added.
Siti Nurul Hidayah was not the only person to make such claims, with Bersatu Youth member Adam Mukhriz Mohd Muhayeddin telling reporters that he had lodged a police report against MACC for interrogating him and another party member in isolation until the wee hours of the morning on June 5.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also responded to this, saying that the Perikatan Nasional administration is using enforcement agencies like MACC to “pressure the opposition,” specifically against Bersatu Youth leaders aligned to him.
“We are surprised that MACC is doing this, detaining people, questioning them and all that. If they don’t (stop) we have to be very active in exposing all the wrong things that they carry out,” he said during his press conference on June 5. – June 6, 2020
