KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 ― The claims that former Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was involved in the forgery of documents on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is “ridiculous”, his daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar has said.

Nurul Izzah who is also PKR vice-president pointed out that her father was imprisoned in early February, months before the July 2 publication of a controversial expose of the allegedly leaked documents said to implicate his political foe, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“How could he (Anwar) have forged the documents when he’s been in prison since February?” the Lembah Pantai MP was quoted as saying by The Star daily in its report today.

She was responding to claims made in a video that surfaced on the internet yesterday featuring former Sarawak journalist Lester Melanyi.

The 49-year-old claims to have been hired as a representative of London-based whistleblower site Sarawak Report that had published the purportedly leaked confidential documents, but now insists the papers were forged as part of a conspiracy plot by several opposition politicians to remove Najib from office.

PKR’s Anwar and Rafizi Ramli and DAP’s Tony Pua,  See Chee How and Chong Chieng Jen were among several opposition lawmakers named as part of the plot, based on a police report filed Wednesday by a man named Ramesh Rao Krishnan Naidu, The Star reported.

The daily added that both Chong and See ― respectively the Sarawak DAP chief and Sarawak PKR vice-chairman ― have denied the allegations.

Pua reportedly said it would be a “waste of time” if it could not be shown that the person making the allegations was linked to Sarawak Report.

Yesterday, Rafizi denied the forgery allegations against him, saying that he had never known or contacted Melanyi, adding that he had never instructed Sarawak Report or contacted its editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

On Wednesday, Barisan Nasional communication strategic director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan claimed to have video evidence of SR staff, including its British editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, allegedly tampering with documents supposedly for their exclusive exposés on 1MDB in attempt to link the debt-laden company’s financial situation to Najib.

Abdul Rahman said that he wanted Malaysia’s police to rope in Interpol and British police into the probe of London-based SR for faking the 1MDB documents, also saying that an individual who had lodged a police report had strong evidence there were certain parties trying to execute a mission labelled as “mission to criminalise Datuk Seri Najib Razak and 1MDB”.

Yesterday, Melanyi admitted to Malay Mail Online that he was paid to expose Sarawak Report and Rewcastle-Brown as having allegedly forged 1MDB documents, insisting that his allegations are true.

He declined to reveal the amount he had received and its source.

A special task force is currently investigating claims reported in US business paper the Wall Street Journal that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) from state-owned 1MDB was channelled to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts.